Apparitions
by ILikeToSneeze
Summary: In celebration of Hiro's acceptance into SFIT, the small family of three decide to take a well-deserved break. However, they aren't alone in the holiday house, and they soon realise that there are more than just shadows lurking in the darkness. The things that go bump in the night aren't as imaginary as they had originally thought.
1. The Old House

**Author's Note: Hey guys, it's been a while since I last posted a fic, but I fell in love with this movie and it's characters, and wanted to do something a little different with it. Yes, Tadashi is alive, and the time frame becomes clear in the first chapter (basically, the fire never happened). **

**It is a 'ghost story', although I make no promises on how scary it'll be (I hope you enjoy the plot regardless of fear factor anyway). Also, it does have a few scenes which may disturb sensitive readers (thus the 'T' rating), but overall you should be fine. **

**Oh, and please please please review! I'd love to hear what you think and if you could let me know if I've made any mistakes, that'd be swell ;)**

* * *

The door swung shut with a bang as Hiro got out of the car, eager to walk around and stretch his legs after the two hour long car journey. Shifting his backpack, he picked up Mochi from the ground and took a single step towards the house they would be spending the next week in. It was rather large, considering they were a family of three, with wooden double doors leading into the house, surrounded by green moss which seeped out of the cracks in the cement between the grey bricks, hardly visible behind the weed. Dusty windows littered the building, some with cracks, and the neglected front garden was overgrown with long grass and untrimmed bushes, weeds victorious in their battle against the dying flowers.

"Aunt Cass?" asked Tadashi, as he made his way up the dirt path towards the house. His aunt hummed in response, also caught up in looking at their home for the next week. "I thought you said this was a 'paradise'?"

"Well," replied his aunt, only sparing him a glance as she looked at the house. "It was recommended by a friend of a friend, and on the website it looked so lovely – oh, Tadashi, you should've seen the pictures! Although, now that I think about it they did look a little out of date – but I was _so_ excited. I mean, you know we're not the richest in the world, and this huge house for that small price? Bargain!" Tadashi blinked at her in surprise, before chuckling fondly and lifting up two suitcases, carrying them into the house.

The wooden doors creaked open, and the three dropped their bags just inside before Tadashi located a light switch, brushing away cobwebs and flicking it on. After a second nothing happened, before the house seemed to buzz with electricity and the lights flickered on, flashing a few times before letting in a constant stream of light. The hallway matched the outside in that it was large, although it wasn't nearly big enough to be a hotel lobby, as the advertisement had wrongly stated. There was a flight of stairs to the right and a door on either side of the hallway, one obviously leading to the kitchen as Cass made a beeline for the door on the left.

"You boys go and choose your rooms while I get the food ready. We left a little late and it's dinner already – can you believe it!"

Giving each other a knowing look at the behaviour of their excitable aunt, the two boys made their way up the stairs, each step creaking as they ascended.

"Right," said Tadashi as they reached the top, setting their cases down. "What room do you want?" He looked from his younger brother to the two corridors stemming off from the landing. Hiro looked between the two before picking up his case and walking down the left corridor, as Tadashi followed.

"Uh, I'll take this one, I guess." Hiro said, deciding on a room halfway down the corridor. "Will your one be close?" he nearly winced at how childish it sounded, but luckily Tadashi either hadn't noticed, or pretended not to. The two brothers had lived in the same room for years now, and so being apart so suddenly in a new house was strange for the both of them – especially for Hiro, who had been too young to remember having his own room when they had lived with their parents.

"I'll go next door. Do you mind taking Baymax? Careful – he's quite heavy."

"You brought him?" Hiro asked in surprise, as he was weighed down by Baymax's red case.

"Yeah. I figured I could work on him while we're here. _And_ if anyone happens to get hurt, we already have an expert to help!" he grinned, obviously proud of his foresight and Hiro rolled his eyes fondly.

"Right, 'cause it's not like Cass wanted us to take a _break_ from working."

"Hey, as far as I'm concerned, this is a celebration for you getting into SFIT." He reached out behind Hiro and grabbed his backpack, shaking it lightly. "And I'll bet there's more than clothes in there," he was rewarded by a satisfying clinking sound of metal colliding inside the bag, and Hiro blushed, pulling away from Tadashi.

"Right, okay, whatever – I'll take Baymax then." And with that, Hiro pulled the red case with him into his new room, closing the door behind him. He set the nurse 'bot down by the door before throwing his suitcase on the bed, closely followed by his backpack. Hiro knew giving him Baymax was his brother's way of keeping an eye on him now that they were separated, but he didn't mind. It would be nice to have some company, be it only his brother's college project.

He flicked on the light, and for the first time took a good look at the room. It was fairly big, with a single bed in the middle of the room next to the window. Thin, tattered curtains floated in a non-existent breeze, and the window itself was covered in grime, the thick dust preventing anyone from seeing out or in. The wallpaper was peeling and water-stained in the corners, and the floorboards were uneven, with dark patches staining the wood. On the far side of the room there was an old ebony wardrobe, two doors wide with drawers underneath, and next to the small bed there was a matching bedside table, complete with drawers too.

Hiro sighed and slouched over to the bed, landing on it with a few bounces next to his things. There was no need for him to use the wardrobe, as Hiro always kept his things in the suitcase on the rare occasions that they travelled, and Tadashi probably wouldn't want his help with unpacking, leaving Hiro very bored and longing for something to do. His dark eyes locked on the window and he hopped off the bed, making his way over to the grimy glass. Pulling down the sleeve of his jumper over his hand, he rubbed the material over the glass, grimacing in disgust as the dust that had been built up for years transferred itself to his sleeve. He wiped the dark dirt on the wall next to the window, before peering out through the hole in the dust he'd created.

His bedroom overlooked the back garden, although due to the fact that it wasn't fenced off, either because the previous owners had decided not to, or the fence had just weathered away (the latter was more likely, judging by the condition of the garden); it was hard to tell how large it was. There was a big tree at the back of the garden, just in front of a long dip in the ground which Hiro assumed was a river, and casted a shadow over the rest of the garden, making eerie shapes in the moonlight.

The grass was long overdue a mow, and Hiro could just about see a rotting wooden garden seat standing to one side, the white paint almost completely flaked off. Next to the seat was a large tire, looking as if it could possibly be the back wheel of a tractor. The black rubber had been stained green from years of exposure, and the grass had grown so tall around it the tire was almost covered. There was a swing set on the other side of the garden, although it was so rusted it was impossible to tell what colour it once was. All in all, the garden looked like something out of a horror film, and that sparked Hiro's interest.

Pushing away from the window, he ran out of his room and down the stairs, heading in the opposite direction of the front door to the utility room. Hiro nearly tripped over Tadashi's baseball bat as he searched the cupboards for the key he remembered his aunt mentioning, grinning as he finally found it in the cupboard nearest the door.

Outside, the grass was still damp from the heavy rainfall a couple of hours earlier, and the ground squelched under Hiro's trainers. Up close, the garden was in much more of a mess than Hiro had previously thought, and at times he'd had to dodge obstacles camouflaged by overgrown grass, or attempt to kick the odd deflated football out of the way.

Unintentionally, Hiro found himself standing at the foot of the large tree at the back of the garden, although he had had no intention of going there. He looked up into the dark mass of broken branches and dying leaves, about to turn away when something caught his eye. Hiro frowned as he looked closer, not quite being able to see what it was from his angle. Looking around, Hiro spotted a fallen branch next to an overturned chair and picked it up with a little difficulty – he was small and scrawny for a fourteen year old, which certainly hadn't helped when he had skipped a few grades and started attending the same college as his twenty-year-old brother.

Hiro wobbled around as he hefted the branch up so it was standing vertically. Luckily, it was a little shorter than Hiro and was reasonably thin, meaning it wasn't impossible for him to lift it. He grabbed it and pulled it up so he was holding it above him, struggling to stand his ground as the branch started tipping, threatening to take Hiro with it, but he let out a sigh of relief as it caught on another branch still attached to the tree. Hiro jiggled the branch a little, and clumsily steered it towards the object he could now identify as a rope. Hiro's curious mind swam with reasons as to why there would be a rope up there, and he took one last heavy hit at it before it tumbled down next to him, dangling from the tree.


	2. Running Water

Hiro gasped and let go of the branch, letting it fall to the wet grass with a thud. The rope was clearly years old, with dark green moss growing down the length of it, and the colour was now more of a muddy beige rather than the white it must have originally been. But what really struck Hiro was the end of the rope, the part just above his head. The end had been tied off in a loop, looking to be big enough to fit over the head of a child. Hiro stared at the noose and his breath caught in his throat as the air around him seemed to get colder. He was frozen, unable to move and feeling as though he were looking death right in the eye.

"Hiro!" a call from the house snapped him out of his trance, and he turned to see his older brother at the door, waving for him to come back inside. "C'mon, bonehead, dinner!"

With one last wavering look at the noose gently swinging in the breeze, Hiro turned and ran through the garden and back into the house, not once looking back at the large tree at the back of the garden. 

* * *

"I just don't understand what's wrong with the sink," said Aunt Cass after dinner, staring at said sink in confusion. "I mean, everything in this house is supposed to work fine!"

"Aunt Cass," said Tadashi with a laugh, "look at this place – I think it'd be a miracle if something here _was _working fine."

"Oh don't be silly – anymore of that and I'll start stress eating again!"

"There must be something in the drains. We'll wash up in the bathroom sink, and I'll take a look at the pipes tomorrow."

Cass gave him a grateful smile as they collected the dirty plates and cutlery for dinner, carrying them to the bathroom through the door connecting it with the kitchen. 

* * *

Hiro slowly made his was upstairs, dragging his feet as he went. He knew Tadashi had sensed there was something wrong at dinner, but obviously hadn't wanted to say anything in front of Cass. Hiro _wanted_ to tell Tadashi, but at the same time he didn't. He didn't want to worry his brother about it, and Tadashi was the type of person who wouldn't take lightly to the fact that someone had died here – a child, most likely.

Hiro flopped onto his bed, laying his head back against the pillow he'd brought from home and sighed, turning to the side and curling in on himself, too tired to even think about changing into his bedclothes, the events of the day having exhausted him. Hopefully sleep would help clear his head so he could forget about what he'd found in the tree, and he would be able to enjoy the rest of the holiday away with his family. Hiro smiled as he looked at the foot of his bed, and saw that Tadashi had unpacked his backpack, placing all of his robotics at the end of the bed, lined up and ready for when Hiro would use them.

Just as the fourteen-year-old was drifting off to sleep, a scratching sound woke him with a start. It seemed to be coming from the far side of the room, somewhere near the wardrobe. Just as he was beginning to think he'd imagined it, the scratching sound was heard again, and Hiro shot up so he was in a sitting position, straining his ears to listen to even the slightest sound in the dark room. Upon the scratching happening for the third time, it was followed by a short scuffle before the sound seemed to move to a different place in the wall, residing there instead. Hiro let out a puff of air and laughed quietly despite himself. Trust _him_ to be spooked by a few mice in the walls. He'd have to let Tadashi know in the morning, but for now the mice could stay where they were, for Hiro was too exhausted to even think about getting up out of his warm, cosy bed. 

* * *

To say Tadashi was exhausted was an understatement. He'd spent the last few days staying up until early hours of the morning working on Baymax, to make sure that the robot was as close to perfection as he could get him for their family trip, and now the sleep deprivation had finally caught up with him. He looked in the bathroom mirror as he waited for the bathtub to fill with water, and was relieved to see that while he felt as though he could drop to the floor in fatigue at any moment, he looked healthy and awake. That was one less thing to worry about – at least his aunt wouldn't be concerned about him. The slightest thing could set her off on a marathon of stress eating, and no one wanted that.

Tadashi ran a hand through his short hair as he thought about Hiro. His younger brother had been acting strange at dinner, barely touching a thing on his plate and acting surprised whenever anyone spoke to him directly, as if he'd thought he was alone. Tadashi had almost missed the quite 'night' his brother had all but whispered, and a shared look with Aunt Cass had shown him that she'd noticed too.

Realising that the bathtub was now nearly filled with hot water, he reached out to turn the tap off, but to his dismay no matter how far he turned the handle on the tap, the stream of water wouldn't stop. He pulled and pulled at the handle, trying to turn it to stop the water which was now dangerously close to overflowing, but it wouldn't go any further. He tried turning it the other way, but that only resulted in making the stream faster, meaning the tub would overflow quicker. Panicked, Tadashi tried the other handle, the one he knew was for controlling the temperature, but it did nothing. If anything, the air in the small room got colder.

Tadashi fisted his hair in panic, watching as the water spilled over the tub and onto the floor. Just as he was about to turn to the sink to see if the cupboard below it held anything he could use to stop the water, he thought he saw something in the tub. Peering over the rim, he gasped as he looked straight into the sunken, unseeing eyes of a woman, her blonde hair flowing around her head like a halo and her skin deathly pale. Her clothes were old, as though they didn't belong in this century, and her blue lips were parted in a silent scream. Tadashi stumbled backwards until his back hit the wall, and tried to get his breathing in check as his heart thudded, blood rushing in his ears. His eyes were wide and he didn't once look away from the bath, frozen and unable approach it again to make sure he wasn't seeing things, the image of the drowned woman burned into his mind, leaving him too scared to move forwards.

"Tadashi?" Tadashi jumped violently at the sound of his aunt's voice coming through the door. He swallowed to wet his dry throat before replying shakily.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay? I heard a bang – did you fall?" Tadashi cleared his throat, his eyes still on the bath.

"No, no I'm fine. Ju-just dropped the, er, the shampoo." He squeezed his eyes shut, taking his eyes off of where the woman lay for the first time, as he prayed that his aunt wasn't worried enough to pick up on his horrible acting. He never had been a good performer – science was always the centre of his school life.

"Well, all right. I'm heading to bed now – I'll see you and Hiro in the morning for breakfast, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah see you,"

Tadashi let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding as he heard his aunt's footsteps disappearing down the corridor. Once again, his gaze fell on the bath and he prepared himself for the worst as he slowly stepped towards it. Reluctantly stretching his neck to look in the tub whilst standing as far away as he could, he almost cried in relief as he saw the woman was no longer there. Shaking his head at his own stupidity, he ran a shaking hand through his hair and reached out to once again turn the tap off, only to belatedly realise that the water was no longer flowing. A quick look to the rug beneath his feet showed that there wasn't any water. Where there should have been a large puddle soaking his socks and the bottoms of his trousers, there was only dry floor. The water in the tub was at the level it had been at when he'd first tried to turn the water flow off.

Tadashi found himself lost for words as he stared at the still water, and decided to put the hallucination down to his lack of sleep. Deciding that his mental health was more important than a bath, he pulled up his sleeve and reached into the warm water, pulling the plug out of the plughole and watching somewhat distantly as the liquid swirled around, draining down the hole until the bath was empty, finishing with a low gurgle as the last of the water trickled down the plughole. He sighed and ran a hand over his face, before leaving the bathroom and making his way to his bedroom, hoping to sleep off the night's occurrences.


	3. Nightmare

The running water filled her ears and gushed through her brain, as the memory of finding her mother lying unmoving at the bottom of the bathtub surged through her mind.

The rope rubbed against her neck as she moved around on the chair she was standing on. Eventually, deciding she'd waited long enough, the young girl kicked the chair out from under her feet, the last thing she heard being the clattering of the chair as it fell to the ground, before the rope became taut and her limbs dangled lifelessly from the tree, her legs swaying to and fro gently as the rope rocked under her weight.

* * *

Hiro woke up with a choked gasp, shooting up in his bed and looking around the room with wide, wild eyes. _Just a dream_ he told himself, his breath shaking as he tried to control his heavy breathing. _It was just a dream_. He flopped back into the bed, turning over to grab his phone from the bedside table, switching it on so the screen lit up, causing him to squint into the sudden light.

_6:47 am_

Hiro sighed dramatically and dropped his phone back on the bedside table with a trembling hand, before yanking off his covers. There was no way he was getting back to sleep after a nightmare that vivid, so he instead moved to turn on the light, the early morning sun still not bright enough to light up the room completely.

As he reached for the suitcase at the foot of his bed, Hiro frowned and leaned down further, pushing the case out of the way as he looked under the bed.

"Weird..." he murmured to himself, pushing up so he was sitting on his legs. _I could've sworn my robotics were at the end of the bed when I fell asleep_. Hiro shrugged and decided to get dressed, freezing momentarily as he pulled on his jumper, staring over at the other side of the room.

The two halves of his unfinished robot were sitting beside the wardrobe, almost seeming to reach up for the door, although they were way too small to have any chance of opening it. Hiro's brows furrowed as he moved to pick up the pieces of his robot in one hand, using the other to open the wardrobe door.

Inside there was a range of dresses, all looking to be about Hiro's size, lined up in order of colour. The fabric of the dresses was faded, making what would have been pretty colours look old and musty. At the far end, there was a dark navy coat, far too large to belong to the young girl whom Hiro assumed had lived in his room previously. This coat looked to belong to a grown man, and was obviously well-used judging by how the fabric in some areas had worn through.

At the bottom of the wardrobe, however, Hiro gasped as he knelt down, picking up his tools and spare parts which had somehow made it inside. "What?" Hiro whispered, looking at the metal in his hands in confusion, before his face became grim as he slammed the door shut and threw the collection of parts and tools onto his bed, marching out of the room.

* * *

Tadashi yawned as he left his bedroom, intent on having an early shower (definitely not a bath), before everyone else woke up. So to see his younger brother – someone who, as a teenager, was rarely up before eleven in the morning – awake, dressed and storming towards him angrily threw him a little to say the least.

"Hey, Hiro," he began cheerfully, but his younger brother didn't even let him finish.

"Tadashi, trying to scare me is _not cool_," he crossed his arms, the frown not leaving his face even at his brother's confused expression. "And it didn't work anyway – why'd you think it was okay to move my stuff around like that? Did you think I'm dumb enough to think it moved itself? Or was it a _ghost_?" Normally, Hiro would have ignored his brother's futile attempts to scare him, or at least laughed at how ridiculous they were, but after the vivid nightmare and the rope he found in the tree, Hiro was tired, grumpy, and very lacking in patience.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," replied Tadashi, bewildered at his brother's outburst. "I haven't been in your room at all – except from when I gave you Baymax."

"You have! Don't lie Tadashi, I know you went in there to unpack my bag!"

"I didn't! – and wait, rewind a sec. Did you say I moved your things...to _scare_ you?"

Now that Hiro thought about it, this wasn't the usual way his brother went about trying to scare him. It would usually be jumping out from behind doors, or tricking him into playing the _scary maze_ game – something which would allow him to see the fright on his little brother's face. _This_ would barely get a reaction, and therefore was definitely not up his brother's street when it came to pranking.

"And I didn't unpack your stuff." Tadashi continued. "I had my own things to take care of. Anyway, you're fourteen – hardly incapable of unpacking."

"Oh. Think it was Aunt Cass?"

Tadashi shook his head, "no, she was cooking dinner – you know that. What about Baymax?"

"No, he wasn't on."

"Could he have heard someone say 'ow'?"

"Uh, maybe." Hiro blinked up at his brother, a sheepish smile on his face. "Yeah, it was probably Baymax. Sorry for, uh, being mad and stuff." Hiro scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish grin and gestured at his brother loosely, who smiled in return, ruffling Hiro's dark mass of messy hair.

"It's fine. Mystery solved." Tadashi winked before making his way to the bathroom, making sure he chose the room with the shower, not the tub. Even if it _was_ just his imagination, he wasn't taking any chances.

* * *

"So Hiro, Tadashi tells me you checked out the garden yesterday," Cass said, in between mouthfuls of her jam sandwich.

"Yeah," Hiro replied with a nod, although he didn't bother to wait until he'd swallowed, and instead spoke around the food in his mouth, something which Tadashi was quick to reprimand him for. Hiro grinned apologetically at his brother before finishing his mouthful. "I mean, _yeah_,"

"Find anything exciting?"

"Uh," Hiro's eyes widened as he thought about whether or not to tell Tadashi and his aunt. He had planned on telling them eventually, but he really didn't want to bring the mood down. "No," he finally said, eventually making his mind up. "No, there wasn't anything – just a bunch of broken garden stuff."

"Oh, that's a shame," said Aunt Cass, and Hiro silently applauded himself on his fantastic acting performance, until he caught his brother's eye. Tadashi was looking at him with narrowed eyes, obviously suspicious of his little brother and less compelled to believe the young genius than their aunt was.

"Yeah," agreed Tadashi, not taking his eyes off of a suddenly nervous Hiro. "What a shame."

Suddenly, the lamp hanging above the table the three were seated at began to swing, warping the light as the shadows danced and moved according to the position of the bulb.

They looked up at it in confusion, just as it began to flicker. At first, it was nothing more than short bursts of the light dimming, but it soon escalated so that the light completely disappeared, turning back on seconds later before repeating the process.

Hiro looked at Tadashi in confusion, just as the light went out all together, plunging the three in near-darkness. Although it was the middle of the day, thick rainclouds had completely covered the sun, obstructing a lot of the sunlight from reaching the house. With the dirty windows already barely letting any daylight through, the room was unnaturally dark for the time of day when the sun was usually at its brightest.

"I'll go and have a look at the wiring – you two boys stay here and finish your lunch," said Cass, and left the room before either of the brothers could point out that they were both much more suited to go and check out faulty wiring.

To their surprise, however, as soon as the door had swung shut behind their aunt, the light turned back on as if nothing had happened. It didn't even flicker a little like it usually did when it was turned on from the switch on the wall – it just shone as if it had been going for the entirety of their lunch.

Hiro groaned, banging his head against the table. "_Dude_! This house sucks – nothing works, there's no one around for miles, and it's downright _creepy_!"

The sides of Tadashi's mouth twitched up in a smirk. "You're not _scared_, are you Hiro?" Hiro lifted his head to glare at his brother. "Because I thought you _never_ got scared. Unless I was thinking of someone else, that is…"

"Of course I'm not scared!" Hiro exclaimed, taking the bait as Tadashi knew he would. "I just think it's _creepy. _I never said anything about being scared – that was all you."

"Hey now, let's not go putting words into my mouth, Hiro,"

Hiro's mouth dropped open in disbelief. "Unbelievable! _You're_ the one who spoke them in the first place!"

And with that, Hiro stood up from his chair, causing the chair legs to scrape loudly against the tiled floor, and left the room. Tadashi grinned to himself and shook his head at Hiro's antics. _Teenagers are so easy to wind up. Makes me wonder if I was ever like that when I was Hiro's age – I hope not!_


	4. Inflation

Hiro slumped down against his bed with a sigh, rubbing his forehead against the back of his hand in frustration. He hadn't meant to snap at Tadashi – frankly, he didn't know why he did. The lack of sleep caused by last night's nightmare was really starting to get to him.

A knock at the door brought him out of his daydreams, and his face relaxed into a smile as he saw his brother peering round the door.

"Hiro?"

"Hey. Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, uh...you know. _Again_." Hiro's cheeks flushed with embarrassment at having to apologise to his brother for the second time that day.

Tadashi let out a laugh, "Don't worry about it, knucklehead. It's already forgotten about."

Hiro looked at him sceptically. "Then…why are you here?"

"What?" Tadashi feigned hurt and put a hand on his heart. "Can't I just hang out with my little brother?" Hiro raised his eyebrows and pouted his lips a little, clearly disbelieving of his brother. "All right – fine. I was wondering if you wanted to help me work on Baymax," he gestured to the red box in the corner, "since I know how much you like him."

Hiro raised his eyebrows in shock, and his mouth spread into a wide grin – "Woah, you serious? Yeah, that's so sick!" – Before he seemed to realise his manly pride was hanging in the balance, and coughed into his fist, "I mean yeah, sure. If you, uh, insist."

Tadashi laughed at his younger brother fondly and picked up Baymax's case, carrying it over to Hiro so they could work while leaning against the bed.

"You wanna do the honours?" he asked.

Hiro grinned broadly, "Ow."

"Here," Tadashi said, lifting a screwdriver as Baymax inflated. He allowed his gaze to drift to his left to witness the wonder in Hiro's wide eyes. "First, I'll show you how I put the cameras in."

* * *

Hiro tossed and turned in his bed that night, groaning to himself in frustration at his inability to get to sleep. He'd had fun with Tadashi, and had really enjoyed spending the day with his older brother, doing something they both loved. He'd thought it would be enough to take his mind off of the tree, but unfortunately that didn't seem to be the case.

Every time he closed his eyes, flashes of the young girl dangling lifelessly from the tree, her limbs hanging limp and her head resting against her chest, seeped into his thoughts and overtook his mind like a parasite.

Hiro sat up and rubbed his eyes tiredly, in the middle of reaching out for his phone before he froze. His hooded eyes widened as he stared at the corner of the room. On a hanger hooked onto a bar beside the door (it was most probably something they'd used as a clothing rack), was the navy blue coat Hiro had previously seen in his wardrobe.

However, the sudden emergence of the coat from the wardrobe wasn't the only thing that made Hiro's hairs stand on end. What truly scared him was the fact that it seemed to be inflated, as though there was someone wearing it. Too scared to lift his phone and shine a light in its direction to get a better view, Hiro was left holding his breath as he stared at the coat, as if he were waiting for it to move.

A hiss from his right made his heart leap and he tore his eyes away from the corner to look at the door, where through the cracks surrounding the wood he could see that the landing light had been turned on. He could hear his aunt's voice distantly, calling for Mochi, and listening to her acted as a source of comfort, although it did little to quell the fear coursing through him.

When he eventually worked up the courage to turn back to look at the coat, however, it was no longer inflated. The fabric which had previously been inflated was flat, as if it had just been ironed, and it looked as though it hadn't been moved at all. There was no one in the room – Hiro knew that for sure due to the creaky floorboards, meaning he couldn't blame it on Tadashi this time. Hiro frowned and scrubbed at his tired eyes with his hand, before lying back down.

Pegging the strange occurrence to his eyes playing tricks on him due to the dark and lack of sleep, and nothing more, Hiro closed his eyes and tried to let himself fall asleep. He eventually drifted off, thankful that his dreams were empty of dead mothers and dying children.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the room next door, Tadashi was also having trouble getting to sleep. Whenever he would begin to drift off, his ears would play tricks on him and he would distantly hear music, although every time he started awake the music disappeared.

_What's wrong with me?_ He wondered. _Ever since we came here I've been having strange experiences, like the light in the kitchen or the woman in the bathtub. I'd bet my hat that Hiro's having the same problem if his odd behaviour is anything to go by, although getting anything out of the bonehead is another problem in itself. _

Tadashi was jerked out of his thoughts suddenly by the sound of the same music that had been keeping him up, only this time, he wasn't on the brink of sleep and was very much awake. Looking around his room for the source, he was finally able to locate it as he looked at the ceiling. _It's coming from above me?_ He thought in confusion. Aunt Cass hadn't mentioned anything about a loft, but then again why would she? It's not like they would be using it.

Deciding to investigate due to the thought that if he didn't turn off the music he'd never get to sleep, Tadashi threw his covers to the side and slipped out of bed. _I bet it's Hiro up there trying to scare me as payback for whatever he thinks I did. Or maybe he's looking for pieces for his robotics. Either way, it's one o'clock in the morning and he has to go to bed. _

Creeping out of his room, Tadashi tiptoed around the landing, looking for an entrance to the loft in the ceiling. Having no luck in finding the tell-tale square cut door in the white paint, Tadashi decided that there must be another way into the loft, and began to look for any doors that he'd missed. He searched all through the second floor of the house multiple times, including the empty bedrooms, but still had no luck in finding anything.

Just as Tadashi was about to give up on his search and go back to bed, he spotted a part of the florally-decorated wall where the wooden panels that covered the bottom half didn't seem to match up. Upon closer inspection, he found a cutaway part of the wood that seemed to be shaped for a hand to grasp, effectively acting as an imbedded handle. Tadashi held it and pulled, and with a hard tug, the wooden section of the wall came away like a door, cobwebs stretching as they tried not to let go of the separated part of the wall and thin dust clouds floating up from the hole, making Tadashi cough into his arm so as to not wake anyone else in the house.

"Hiro?" he whispered into the darkness, although the logical part of him knew that there was no way spider webs could've formed that quickly if his brother really was up there. Not to mention the amount of effort it had taken to open the door pointed towards it not having been opened in a very long time – years, most likely.

After crouching by the opening in silence for a couple of moments, ears straining for any sound coming from the darkness in front of him, Tadashi took a steadying breath and brushed the cobwebs away from the entrance, dipping his head a little as he moved into the loft.

Reaching into his back pocket, he berated himself on not thinking about it sooner and pulled out his phone, turning on the torch application to allow him to see in the darkness. Dust particles floated around in the beam of light, and the walls were lined with old, peeling, flowery wallpaper, similar to that of the hallway.

As he moved forwards, the light fell on a set of wooden stairs ascending further up, solidifying Tadashi's suspicion that this was the entrance to the loft. The passageway was narrow even on the stairs, meaning the fact that he could now stand upright did little to help his comfort, as the walls were close enough to brush against his shoulders.

Tadashi didn't have long to wait before he came to a door at the top of the old stairs, and grasped the cool metal of the doorknob with a shaking hand. He waited a moment to collect himself, unsure of why he was suddenly so nervous, before he turned the knob and pushed open the door, letting it swing back soundlessly.


	5. Blackout

From what Tadashi could see from the beam of his torch, the ceiling was sloped with old wooden beams holding it up. The ground looked to be made of almost rotting wood, although it looked safe enough to carry his weight. There were large cardboard boxes stacked around the edges of the loft, the tops caked in dust and cobwebs connected to the walls.

Tadashi shone the torch on the wall beside the door, and was relieved to find a dull bronze-coloured light switch. He flicked it on, and after a few seconds of nothing, a naked bulb hanging from the ceiling shone with a dim light, barely illuminating the corners of the room. Old strands of spider webs glowed in the yellow light, and Tadashi turned off his phone and placed it back in his pocket now the room was lit.

He wasn't surprised to find that there was no one there, and was about to leave when something in the corner of the loft caught his eye. Standing upright in a dark corner to his right was an old violin. The wood it was made of was dull and splintered, and the strings were brown with rust. The horse hairs on the bow leaning against the wall behind it were severed from the top, now only attached to the bottom of the bow, lying uselessly on the ground. It didn't look as if it had been touched in years if the undisturbed dust on the floor surrounding it was anything to go by; however the violin itself was clear of anything of the sort, as if someone had cleaned it before he had arrived. As he got closer, his brow furrowed further at the lack of dust on something which had supposedly stood idle for a long time, and another quick glance around the room confirmed that no one but Tadashi was up there.

Deciding that there was nothing more he could look for, Tadashi turned and left the loft, sending the violin one last glance before he switched off the light and closed the door, leaving the loft in complete and utter darkness.

* * *

Hiro reached under his bed for his suitcase, deciding to dress before breakfast as opposed to going down in his pyjamas as he usually did. He had once again woken up early – although this time it wasn't due to a nightmare – and couldn't fall back to sleep. Instead of lying in bed for another hour or so, he'd decided to do something useful with his time and had started getting ready for the day. His hand blindly felt around under the bed until it hit something soft, surprising him. Hiro frowned in confusion as he pulled the object out from under the bed and stared at it. In his hand was a stuffed rabbit, about the size of his head. It had pale blue fur with large, unblinking, plastic eyes, although the pupils painted on had almost been scratched away, leaving nothing but the white behind. On its neck was a cotton bowtie, although the stitching had come away over the years, leaving the bowtie hanging on at a crooked angle by a thread.

Lying flat on his stomach, Hiro looked under the bed and saw more of the stuffed animals, and began pulling them out one by one; a bear with a missing eye, a headless dog, another bear – although this time the brown fur had been stained darker in some places, looking to be almost black – and finally, a long-limbed monkey that smiled widely at Hiro as he stared back at it.

_These must've all belonged to the girl,_ thought Hiro, absently putting them in order of size as he studied them curiously. _Strange how no one thought to clear out this place before putting it up as a holiday home. Surely someone else stayed here before us._ Hiro frowned and shrugged in response to his own internal question, before deciding to lean the newly ordered animals against the wall beside his bed and pulling out his suitcase and setting out his clothes for the day.

* * *

After breakfast, Hiro decided that he wanted to work on his robot. He'd spent the majority of the holiday so far adding to his invention (although Cass wasn't too happy about it), and was excited to try out a new idea he'd thought up during breakfast. Hopefully, by improving the speed, he could make the robot twice as effective in 'bot fights as it was before, meaning more money for his wins.

As he settled against his bed with his robot in his hand, his gaze absently drifted over to the stuffed toys sitting against the wall near him. He'd almost forgotten he'd placed them there, and was about to resume his work on the robot when his head snapped back to the toys in a double take. Hadn't he placed them in size order before he left? He distinctly remembered putting the rabbit at the front of the line, but now the toys were in a random order with the blue bunny at the back of the line, furthest away from Hiro.

"What's going on around here?" wondered Hiro, staring at the toys for a moment more before settling down to work on his battle 'bot, taking his mind off of the animals beside him.

* * *

The picture on the brick-like television was grainy at best, but Tadashi was determined to catch up on current events. He could use his phone to access the internet for the news, but nothing could quite beat eating his lunch in front of the TV. When Tadashi returned to the small living room from the kitchen after getting rid of his empty plate, however, he was taken aback to find that the TV was blank.

"What…" Tadashi muttered to himself as he picked up the remote and tried to turn the television back on. The screen stayed black, seeming to mock him in his annoyance. "Oh, for – nothing ever works in this house!" he grumbled as he grumpily approached the TV, leaning over to look at the wiring behind it to see if there was anything that had somehow come loose in the time it had taken him to put his plate in the kitchen.

Everything seemed to be attached, and he leaned back to try turning it on manually with the button on the actual television set, however nothing happened. He eventually resorted to pulling out the wires at the back to restart it, but before he could put them back in white noise filled his ears, causing him to jump back in fright at the unexpected sound.

The screen was filled with buzzing static, although that couldn't have been possible as Tadashi had removed everything the TV had needed in order to work. It shouldn't have been able to turn on.

Wordlessly, he slowly made his way towards the television, trying to turn it off with the button on the TV itself, but it did nothing to get rid of the deafening static. He considered calling for Hiro, as he was sure that the genius could fix it, however the blow to his pride at asking for his younger brother's help stopped him from doing so.

Tadashi decided to plug the wires back in, but just as he was about to do so, the static stopped, leaving the screen as blank as it had been before. Tadashi stared at it in shock for a moment, before deciding to leave the wiring at the back for later, and got up to leave.

As he was leaving, a strange buzzing sound caught his attention, and he turned to look behind him into the living room, his brows furrowing as he noticed the ceiling lamp was flickering. It continued to do so for a few more seconds, before it went out completely.

Although the grimy windows didn't allow much light into the room (and the rest of the house), Tadashi knew it was strangely dark here. The darkness seemed to centre around the TV, making it difficult to see the set even though it was midday. Tadashi blinked and squinted at the room, as the darkness seemed to expand throughout it and things that he could previously see clearly were now obscured by the complete and utter blackness shrouding the room. It looked to be making its way forward and towards Tadashi, swallowing everything that it came into contact with; the bookcase on the far wall, the plant in the corner, the sofa he'd been sitting on.

The young man had a strange feeling that the darkness seemed predatory, almost as if he were its prey, and without a second thought he swung the door shut behind him as he left the room, hesitating once he was out in the hallway and unsure of what he had just witnessed.

Slowly, he backed away from the old oak door, watching it suspiciously, waiting for the darkness to come for him, but nothing happened. Tadashi let out a shaky breath and looked down at his trembling hands, seriously considering going to the doctors for a check-up to make sure he hadn't consumed anything that caused hallucination, when the door caught his eye once again. At first, he couldn't be sure as to whether the darkness really was coming through or the black cloud seeping through the cracks was due to his expectancy of it, but after a couple of seconds the door was completely covered in the strange dark mist, and Tadashi knew he needed to leave as a sense of impending danger washed over him.

What felt like a subzero temperature was radiating from the darkness, and Tadashi was almost hypnotised by the black void before he snapped himself out of it. He turned and fled down the hallway, letting out a surprised cry when he looked over his shoulder and saw that it seemed to be following him, consuming everything in its path as it went. The bulbs of the lights above Tadashi went out whenever he was under them, and in desperation he turned and ran for the stairs, needing to get to Hiro and get him to safety. With the image of his younger brother in the forefront of his mind, Tadashi ran even faster up the stairs, taking them two at a time in his haste to get to Hiro. Once he'd reached the landing at the top of the stairs, Tadashi risked a glance behind him and saw that the darkness was already halfway up the stairs. Nothing beyond it was viewable, and it was as if he was standing in front of a black hole. Any and all light nearby it seemed to be obliterated, leaving a dark void where the sunlight should've hit.

Running down the corridor and feeling the chill of the mist right on his heels, Tadashi wasted no time in shoving Hiro's door open when he reached the teenager's room, slamming it shut behind him and dashing to his brother – who had jumped up from his position on the bed in shock, still grasping his robot – standing protectively in-between the door and Hiro, his arms spread wide.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews - I love reading them! So glad you're enjoying the fic (&amp; keep 'em coming!) ;)**


	6. Following

"Dude! Did you know it's rude to walk in on a guy like that? I could've been – "

Tadashi shushed him, waving his arm at Hiro to emphasise his need for his brother to be quiet without taking his eyes off of the door. The darkness could come through it at any moment, and he wanted to be ready for when he needed to protect his brother. How he would go about that was beyond him, although he was determined to try.

The two brothers stood frozen like that for a few seconds, until Hiro broke the silence, peering round his brother to look at the door.

"Um…Tadashi?" he asked, looking up at his brother. "You feel okay?"

Tadashi only half heard Hiro's question, focused more on the door than anything else. Cautiously, he began to step towards it, keeping and arm out to make sure Hiro kept behind him.

Hiro watched his brother in concern, fear creeping into his mind as he thought of what it could be that had his brother so spooked. It took a lot to scare Tadashi – Hiro knew this from years of attempting to prank him – and so to see him looking so terrified scared Hiro, although he would never admit it. Placing the robot he still held in his hand on the bed, Hiro began to follow Tadashi, keeping behind his outstretched arm as they made their way towards the door.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, Tadashi wasted no time in wrenching the door open, pausing a moment to see if anything was outside the door before exiting the room, making sure his body was blocking the doorway so Hiro couldn't get out, and nothing could get in.

"Tadashi, seriously, what's going on?" asked Hiro, attempting to squeeze past Tadashi.

His older brother finally stepped out into the hallway, frowning in confusion. There wasn't a dark patch in sight. All of the lights were glowing proudly, illuminating the hallway as if nothing had happened.

"I don't know," Tadashi finally replied, rubbing his forehead with a grimace as if he was suffering with a headache. "I'm just gonna go to my room. I'll catch you later."

"Wait!" Hiro made a grab at Tadashi's arm as his brother began to walk away. "At least let Baymax check you over. You're _really_ freaking me out."

Tadashi instantly felt bad, knowing Hiro must really be shaken at his strange behaviour if he was actually admitting to it. However, Tadashi knew that telling Hiro the truth would either make his brother think he was crazy, or scare Hiro, and judging by the teenager's wild imagination, it would probably be both.

"Really Hiro, it's nothing. I just have a headache so I'm gonna lie down for a bit."

"You call _that_ a headache?" Hiro exclaimed. "Listen, I'll go get Baymax and we can –"

"_No_!" Hiro jumped a little at his brother's outburst, and Tadashi immediately felt guilty. "I'm sorry – look, I'm fine, I'm just tired and a little ill, okay? If it doesn't get better then I _promise_ I'll get Baymax to scan me. Sound good?"

Hiro sighed in defeat. "Yeah, okay."

Tadashi tousled Hiro's already messy hair lovingly, "Thanks, bonehead. I'll see you later, okay?"

Hiro nodded as he watched his brother leave and sighed sadly. Turning to walk back into his room, he let out a cry as he stumbled over something near the door. Hiro struggled to maintain his balance, waving his arms about wildly in an effort to not fall over.

When he turned back to see what it was that had tripped him, his breath caught in his throat and he jumped back in fear, unable to take his eyes off of the group of stuffed animals which had gathered by his door. They seemed to have taken a triangle formation, with the blue rabbit at the front, although it was lying on its back from where Hiro had tripped over it.

Trying his best not to hyperventilate, Hiro turned to the wall beside his bed where he had previously lined up the toys, and sure enough there was nothing there. He was certain that they had been there while he'd been working in his robot before Tadashi had walked in, and he was positive they hadn't been anywhere near the door when his older brother was in the middle of what Hiro thought to be some kind of mental breakdown.

Hiro turned back to look at the toys and just about managed to keep down a scream as his eyes widened in fright. The blue rabbit which had been lying on its back was now sitting upright, turned in the opposite direction to the other toys and facing Hiro, it's scratched, unblinking eyes seeming to stare right into his very soul with a cruel smile stretched across its furry lips. Hiro felt as though he couldn't move, too scared to even call out for his elder brother. After what seemed like hours of staring at the stuffed toy, but in reality was only a minute or so, Hiro began to edge his way back, keeping a hand on his bed at all times, feeling as though he needed something to hold on to. He turned to look behind him as he bumped into his bedside table, and this time when he turned back he did let out a cry as the toys were now all facing him, and seemed to have edged closer to the bed in the seconds it had taken him to look away. Hiro felt his breathing quicken in panic and he squeezed the wood of the bedside table against his back, desperately trying to think of a way out of the horrific situation. It was too realistic to be a dream, and Hiro was too scared to think of another way out, which left him with one option.

* * *

"_Tadashi_!"

Tadashi jumped at his younger brother's voice and felt his heartbeat quicken at the pure fear laced into the desperate call. Without a second thought, he jumped up from where he was sitting on the floor with his laptop and ran to his younger brother.

He burst in through the door for the second time that day, and scanned the room, his eyes falling on a clearly terrified Hiro cowering by the bed, clutching the bedside table behind him. Tadashi ran over to Hiro, ignoring the toys scattered on the floor as he crouched down in front of his brother, gripping Hiro's arms and ducking his head to make eye contact with the shaken teenager.

"Hiro? Hiro what's wrong?" Hiro just squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head mutely, serving only to deepen Tadashi's concern. "C'mon buddy, help me out here. What's got you spooked?"

Slowly Hiro lifted his head to look at his brother, before his gaze rested on something behind him. Tadashi turned to look at what his little brother was looking at, seeing nothing out of ordinary but the toys. Suddenly, a thought came to mind and he subconsciously squeezed Hiro's arms a little tighter, as he wondered if Hiro had experienced the same darkness that had chased him through the house. He'd been looking it up on his laptop when he'd heard his brother's call, although so far hadn't found anything of use.

Returning his gaze to his brother, Tadashi studied Hiro's expression, noting that he seemed to have managed to calm himself down a little.

"They were following me," he muttered, and Tadashi had to strain his ears to hear what Hiro had said.

"Who was following you?" he asked gently, feeling panic built at the thought of something following his little brother, the darkness from earlier at the forefront of his mind.

"Them," Hiro answered, shakily pointing at the toys on the floor. Tadashi stood up and made to move towards them, stopping only at Hiro's desperate tug on his sleeve. "Don't, please." Tadashi's heart melted at the fearful look in his brother's tear-filled eyes, and couldn't think of the last time he'd looked so lost and desperate.

"Hiro, it's fine," he said, resting a comforting hand on the smaller one grasping his sleeve, before gently loosening the grip of Hiro's fingers. Once he was free, he sent a warm smile in his brother's direction and approached the toys.

He had to admit, close up they were pretty scary with the big, unblinking eyes and the creepy smiles. _Although,_ he supposed, _all the toys from the time I'm guessing these were around were pretty creepy. I guess Hiro got the kid's room._ Bending down, he picked up the one closest to him – the blue rabbit – and turned it over in his hands, examining it before doing the same with the others.

"Hiro, there's nothing wrong with these toys," he said, dropping the bear to the floor and walking back over to his baby brother, who still hadn't moved from his place by the bed. _Probably still shaken_, he assumed.

"No you've got to believe me, they were following me! Every time I turned –" Hiro shuddered involuntarily and Tadashi put an arm around his brother.

"I believe you, Hiro, don't worry. I've noticed some weird things going on as well, although the information I've managed to pick up is all about ghosts, which we both know don't exist."

At Hiro's slightly guilty expression, Tadashi let out a laugh, immediately dispelling the tension which still hung in the room.

"C'mon, Hiro! _Surely_ you don't believe in ghosts" Hiro looked thoughtful, and Tadashi smiled, trying to keep the conversation light to direct his brother's mind away from the toys, although the topic may not have been the best choice to go for. "They've never been proved, and until they are, I'm gonna stick with science."

"Well, I guess they haven't been _disproved_, so it's still up for debate," replied Hiro with a cheeky grin, and Tadashi frowned playfully at his brother's disagreement, pleased to see Hiro was getting over his shock.

"Well I'm pretty sure no one's died here, so we're safe." He rubbed Hiro's mop of hair even as his brother tried to swat him away, before beginning to collect up the toys. "I'll take these with me for now, okay? And don't hesitate to call me if you need me" Hiro nodded thankfully, as Tadashi left, grateful for the fact that he wouldn't be anywhere near the stuffed animals.

* * *

Tadashi frowned as he placed the toys in the wardrobe under his clothes (he, unlike Hiro, took his clothes out of the suitcase when they travelled). Truthfully, he wasn't as confident that no one had died here as he had let on to Hiro, as images of the dead woman in the bathtub filled his mind.

Hiro had never reacted like that, not even when Tadashi had put a fake spider in his bed when they were younger, so to see him so completely overtaken by fear scared Tadashi. He was just glad his aunt was out shopping and wasn't in to see or hear the panic of the two brothers. That would've been a hard one to explain, and he didn't want to spook his aunt and ruin her holiday. She'd done this for them, and he didn't want to give the impression that he wasn't enjoying her gift.


	7. Sub-Zero

Hiro sat on his bed in thought, going over the events that had taken place in the house. All of them were unexplainable, and once he'd looked at them altogether and not as separate incidents, Hiro decided that his brother's opinion on the paranormal may not be one hundred percent correct.

He thought back to when he'd first arrived, and the noose he'd found in the tree at the back of the garden. If the ghost of the young girl really was haunting the house and messing with their heads, then that would be a good place to start.

* * *

Looking up at where the rope was tied, Hiro looked around for a way to climb up. If the girl had managed it alone all those years ago, then he could do it now.

Hiro righted the fallen garden chair and stood on it, holding his arms out for balance as the crooked legs and uneven grass made the chair tip back and forth. His feet slid a little on the damp chair, creating gaps in the green algae and exposing the white plastic underneath. Reaching up, Hiro locked his fingers around a low branch and hefted himself up and off of the chair, swinging his body until his legs were high enough to wrap around another part of the branch. Taking a moment to make sure his grip was firm so he wouldn't fall, Hiro slowly shuffled towards the trunk of the tree, reaching out for a branch just above his head. He grasped it and swung himself over so he was in the same position as he was on the previous branch, repeating the action until he reached the rope. Straddling the branch, he carefully edged himself along it, before pulling at the tight knot securing the rope to the tree. The knot must have been tight in the first place; however having the added weight of the young girl hanging from it meant that it was near impossible to loosen.

Just as he was about to give up and return to the house, a strong wind whipped around him, causing him to cling to the tree with both his arms and legs wrapped around the branch, his chest resting against the rough bark. The wind didn't let up though, and almost seemed to be trying to blow him out of the tree. Knowing he would fall if he stayed there any longer, Hiro shuffled forwards towards the rope, grasping it before letting it take his weight as he swung down with a grunt. The wind howled in an almost animalistic way and blew even stronger, causing Hiro to flinch and squeeze his eyes shut as he tried to edge his way down the thick rope. The muscles in his arms burned with the effort, and with one last gust of wind, Hiro's back hit the hard, unforgiving trunk of the tree, making him lose his grip altogether and fall the rest of the way to the ground.

As soon as he was on the floor, the wind died down, although Hiro was in too much pain to notice, trying to hold his back as he writhed on the ground, tendrils of pain shooting through his body. He was gasping for breath and attempted to sit up, forcing himself to get a hold of his breathing as his body struggled to get air into his lungs. Hiro knew he'd winded himself, and after a few terrifying seconds of not being able to breath, he took a huge lungful of air, greedily gulping it in as he sat on the wet grass, grasping his chest. The pain in his back had dulled somewhat and after a few moments he decided to return to the house. Shakily climbing to his feet, Hiro groaned in pain as he made his way towards the house, wincing as every step hurt more than the last.

* * *

Tadashi frowned in thought as he was once again sat on the floor in front of his laptop, entering search after search to try to find out what was going on. Every link he clicked on drew a blank, and Tadashi was getting tired of having no answers. He was used to knowing things, and when he didn't know he looked it up. The mystery of this house was proving more difficult to understand than rocket science, and Tadashi should know – he'd taught Hiro rocket science four years ago.

Just as he was about to close his laptop and admit defeat, a splash of water landed on the keypad, closely followed by another. Looking up, he was just in time to close his eyes as an oncoming water droplet landed on his face. Tadashi grimaced and wiped the liquid away with his sleeve, looking up at the ceiling with a frown. He could see no way for the water to be dripping on him. There were no cracks in the ceiling in that area, and it was void of water stains. It looked to be bone dry too, and showed no evidence that water was pooling above and seeping through. There was nowhere for it to be coming from. _Unless…_

* * *

Tadashi once again found himself outside the door to the loft. He'd made his way through the passageway with no problem, but had stopped at the top of the stairs. The door was slightly ajar, even though Tadashi clearly remembered closing it when he'd left from his previous visit. Unless Hiro or Aunt Cass had somehow found out about the panel in the wall and decided to investigate, Tadashi couldn't think of a reason as to why the door was open. Placing his hand on the solid, old wood, Tadashi effortlessly pushed it open, once again letting it swing back silently as he reached for the light switch. When he looked around the room, what he saw made the breath catch in his throat and he felt his eyes widen as he stared. In the middle of the room, filled to the brim with water, was the bathtub from the bathroom. It was exactly the same – Tadashi would never forget the image of the woman in the water – and didn't look to be connected to any pipes which would allow water flow and fill the tub. Flashbacks of the dead woman swarmed through his mind and he was suddenly afraid to approach it, instead staying rooted to the spot with his gaze stuck on the freestanding tub, just like when he had first seen her.

Eventually, knowing he couldn't wait any longer, Tadashi cautiously approached it, taking a long, steadying breath before peering over the rim, looking into the slightly murky water. What he saw surprised him more than scared him, as he had readied himself to come face to face with the woman again, so to see the violin from his last visit lying at the bottom of the tub shocked him. "What…" he stared at it in confusion for a while longer, before the temperature of the room suddenly dropped. Tadashi's fingers numbed immediately, and clouds passed his lips every time he breathed. He wrapped his arms around himself, shivering slightly in the cold air.

As he looked around the room for the source of the icy temperature, Tadashi heard a sloshing sound, not unlike when someone moved back and forth underwater, creating small waves above them. He watched the bath, backing away towards the door slowly and chocked down a scream of horror when a head of blonde, damp hair appeared over the rim of the bathtub. The eyes followed, dead and misty, not unlike those of a deceased fish, before the rest of her face came into view, her mouth wide open in a silent scream. Tadashi stared at the corpse, completely frozen to the spot in fear and cursing himself for ever coming back up here. Water poured from every hole in her face; her mouth, her ears, her nose. Even her eyes were leaking fluid as she began to climb out; thin, spider-like arms grasping the rim as she pulled herself up, not once taking her eyes off Tadashi. She tilted her head to the side as she climbed, one impossibly thin leg stepping onto the ground with a wet slapping sound, closely followed by the other. Her posture was twisted to the side, as if her spine had been twisted, and she began to walk towards Tadashi, stiffly putting one off-centre foot in front of the other, never breaking eye contact.

Finally snapping out of his fearful trance, Tadashi turned and sprinted for the door, not once turning back as he slammed it shut, only letting himself breath properly when he was in the safety of his room, sitting on his bed and hugging his legs close, desperately trying to forget the image of the dripping corpse dragging her feet towards him, never blinking and never looking away. He shuddered, bringing his legs even further to his chest, resting his chin on his knees and squeezing his eyes shut.

He needed a distraction. He needed company, even if he would never tell them about his experience in the loft.

He needed Hiro.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry it's so short, but the holidays have ended, meaning I'm back at school :(  
****Sadly, this also means that my updates won't be as quick as you're used to, so don't panic if I don't post for a couple of days - I'll never leave you guys waiting for too long, especially with all the reviews! Seriously love readying them!  
It takes time when I have to write _and_ proof read, as well as do school work haha. Hopefully it won't be too much of a problem though.  
**

**(I was also tired when I wrote this chapter, so let me know of any mistakes and I'll fix them)**

**Don't forget to leave a review and/or favourite! Thank you!**


	8. Not Alone

"I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

"Hey, Baymax." Upon getting in, Hiro had flopped on his bed, groaning in annoyance. The pain was more or less gone now, but he'd still wanted Baymax to check him over to make sure he was okay, since his fall hadn't been a small one.

"I heard a sound of distress. What seems to be the problem, Hiro?" Baymax tilted his head as he watched Hiro move so he was sitting on the edge of the bed, his feet not quite reaching the floor.

"I…erm, I fell out a tree."

"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"

"Well, before it was like an eight, but now it's more of a five." Hiro said, answering Baymax's question for the first time in a long while.

"I will scan you for injuries."

"Yeah, you do that," replied Hiro, marvelling at his brother's creation. Although he'd seen Baymax active many times before (Hiro tended to be rather danger prone, something he was sure had influenced his brother's decision in building Baymax), he was still amazed at the level of genius needed to create something as advanced.

"Scan complete. Diagnosis: your upper spine appears to be bruised. I recommend that you refrain from strenuous activity for the next few days."

Hiro sighed in relief, "Thanks Baymax." At least his injury wasn't serious at all.

"Hiro. There seems to be another person in distress."

"Who – Tadashi? Is he okay?" asked Hiro, jumping up off the bed and making to leave for his brother's room.

"No, not Tadashi."

"Baymax, Tadashi and I are the only ones in the house. Aunt Cass isn't here – she won't be back for another hour or so," replied Hiro, a sinking feeling appearing in his gut.

"Hiro, there is another person this room."

Hiro felt the blood drain from his face as he stared at the robot. "Wh-what?"

"There is another person in this room," Baymax repeated, this time raising his arm and pointing over to the navy coat hanging the door.

Hiro let out a relieved chuckle. "Baymax, we've been over this. Coat's aren't people; they're just _worn_ by people."

"Hiro, I am certain there is another person here with us. I will scan them for injuries."

"No, don't scan the coat." said Hiro firmly, putting his hands on his hips.

"Scan complete."

"Unbelievable!" he threw up his arms in annoyance before crossing them and frowning at the robot.

"They seem to be in a state of mental distress; however, I am not programmed to treat this kind of pain."

Suddenly a thought occurred to Hiro, and he hesitated before asking, "Baymax…the person wouldn't happen to be a little girl, would it?"

"No. It is an adult male."

Hiro released a sigh of relief, relieved in knowing that is wasn't a ghost – it was just Baymax's scanners acting up.

"Baymax, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that is a coat."

"Hey Hiro, you okay?" asked Tadashi as he entered his brother's room, eyeing Baymax suspiciously. "I heard you talking to Baymax. Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine Tadashi," replied Hiro.

"Hiro has –" began Baymax, before Hiro cut him off.

"Hey, Baymax!" he wrapped his arm around the robot's, dragging him over to his charging station. "You must be tired, why don't you have a rest?"

"Hiro…" Tadashi said warningly, clearly seeing that his little brother was trying to hide something.

"Tadashi, why are you wet?" Hiro suddenly asked, stopping and staring at his brother.

Tadashi started as he looked down at himself, for the first time noticing that his clothes were soaked through as if he'd jumped in a pool. He looked back up at his younger brother, who was looking at him with huge eyes, his head tilted in concern.

"I, uh…that doesn't matter! What's going on with you? What was Baymax gonna say?"

"I'm fine Tadashi, really!" replied Hiro hastily, immediately forgetting about Tadashi's sodden appearance (to his brother's relief). "I was just telling Baymax that coats aren't real people."

"I thought you'd already taught him that," Tadashi looked from Hiro to Baymax in concern, although he knew that if there were anything seriously wrong with Hiro, the robot wouldn't have hesitated to tell him. This was one of the reasons he'd decided to put Baymax in Hiro's room rather than his own – Hiro was by far the clumsiest person Tadashi knew, despite being the smartest, and Tadashi also knew that Hiro didn't like showing weakness, especially to his family. Having Baymax with him meant that when he inevitably got hurt, he wouldn't have to hide it and could instead just go to Baymax, although Tadashi's brotherly instincts meant that he was still concerned when it came to his younger brother's welfare.

"I did, but I guess he's forgotten. He probably needs some more touch-ups" he moved away from the healthcare robot to stand next to Tadashi. "Watch – Baymax, how many of us are there in here?"

"Two."

"See?" Hiro exclaimed, before he processed what it was the robot had said. "Wait – what?"

"There are two people in the room, Hiro. Would you like me to scan you again? The fall may have affected your perception."

"No, do _not_ scan me."

"Scan complete."

"Oh, for the love of –"

"What fall?" Hiro looked up at Tadashi sheepishly as his brother raised an eyebrow.

"I may have _accidentally_ fallen out of the tree in the garden."

Tadashi's eyes widened, "Hiro! How on earth did you fall out of a _tree_? And for that matter, what were you _doing_ in a tree?" he seemed to contemplate this question, before, "actually, scratch that. I don't want to know what you were doing."

"Well, the wind was really strong and I just kinda slipped. But don't worry!" he said hastily, his eyes widening at Tadashi's concerned look. "I'm totally fine! I'm more worried about you – you've still not told me why you're so wet!"

Tadashi frowned, desperately trying to think of a way around telling his little brother the truth. It wasn't that he didn't trust Hiro to believe him; he just didn't want to scare him. With all the creepy stuff going on lately, Hiro really didn't need the dead woman in the bath added to his list of problems.

"I'll probably tell you later, okay? Now's not the time."

"Now's not the time to tell me you forgot to take your clothes off before a shower?" Hiro asked in confusion.

"Something like that," Tadashi replied, smiling softly.

"Well, okay. Whatever."

* * *

"Boys, I'm home!" called Aunt Cass, stepping in through the front door, multiple shopping bags held in each hand. "I'll put dinner on in a mo,"

"Okay Aunt Cass," called back Tadashi from his room. He was lounging on his bed, staring at the ceiling as he wracked his brains for the reason as to why he was so wet. He'd since had a shower to cleanse himself – he didn't feel clean with water from God-knows-where covering him – and was certain it wasn't caused by the water dripping on him earlier. He thought back to the woman in the loft and shuddered, trying not to let the image of her misted eyes stay in his mind for too long. Tadashi wasn't sure what had happened, and he made sure not to dwell on it for too long in order to sustain his mental health, but he knew he wouldn't find the explanation from his aunt or Hiro – the last thing he needed was for them to think he was crazy. He was pretty sure Hiro was already questioning his state of mind when he'd run from apparently nothing into his room like a madman, and not long after had appeared dripping with water. If Hiro didn't think he was insane, it wouldn't take much more, and seeing apparitions (or whatever she was) in the loft would definitely be the tipping point.

From what he'd found on the internet, the only explanation for weird occurrences in an old house was either a mouse infestation or a ghost. Since it was quite obviously not a mouse following him around trying to scare him, Tadashi, for the first time in his life, found himself questioning his mindset that ghosts were very much a figment of the imagination, and frankly, this scared him. He'd always been able to find the answers to things, but with ghosts he was in the dark – quite literally.

* * *

Hiro sighed as he scribbled out yet another design for a robot, chewing on the end of his pencil as his eyebrows furrowed in frustration. He'd sent Baymax to his recharging station at around the same time Aunt Cass had called them to let her know she was in. That had been about an hour ago, meaning dinner would be ready soon. Deciding to give up on his designs for a later time when he had more inspiration, Hiro frowned and rested his head against the backboard of his bed, closing his eyes as he thought. Hiro was bored. They'd been in the house for a while now, and he was ready to return home. He missed having good internet connection, he missed having all the parts he needed to build at his fingertips, he missed sharing a room with Tadashi – the list went on, and Hiro suddenly felt very guilty that he was even thinking these things. Cass had been putting money aside for a while now so they could take some time off, and while this wasn't exactly what any of them had envisioned, he was truly grateful for her making the effort to do this for them. _It would've been a lot nicer if we'd had a house that didn't move things around my room, though,_ Hiro thought somewhat bitterly.

Leaning over, he opened the drawer of his bedside table and made to put his invention book back in there, when his hand brushed something already in the drawer. Looking down in surprise, Hiro picked up the other book, leaving his own on lying forgotten on the bed next to him. "This wasn't in there before…" he muttered to himself, running a hand along the worn spine.

The book was made of dark brown leather with a strap doing all the way round, fastened at the front. Some parts were cracking and fraying with age, showing the white thread underneath, and the pages looked yellow and wrinkled. Curiously, Hiro unfastened the strap and opened the book, beginning to read the messy, slanted handwriting scrawled across the pages. From the entry at the top, _1__st__ March, 1953_, Hiro could tell that this was a diary – an old one, too.

As he read, he realised that it was a child writing the diary, both from the messy handwriting and from the description of events. She couldn't have been older than Hiro – the same age, possibly younger – and the more entries Hiro flicked through, the more he realised she often spoke about her mother acting 'strangely' – what that meant, Hiro didn't know, as she would soon get sidetracked and begin to talk about the 'new swing in the garden dad put up', or a 'new friend' she'd made.

Hiro was so immersed in reading about this young girl's life, that he didn't realise the pages getting damper and damper until the water somehow absorbed by the paper touched his thumb. Hiro started, staring at the now slightly darker pages in a mix of confusion and panic. The ink of the words was starting to smudge, making it difficult to read the spidery writing. Hiro watched in a strange blend of fear and curiosity as the words blurred to the point where they were unreadable, the pages becoming soggy in their leather bindings. Droplets of water fell to the floor, landing on the stained wood, the sound seeming to echo around the room with each impact.

Suddenly, an icy cold wind picked up in the room, howling around Hiro with the strength of a hurricane, pulling and tugging at his hair and clothing like he were nothing but a rag doll in the eye of a storm. The pages of the book began to turn, picking up speed as the wind made them fly past, droplets of water spraying out as they moved at a speed so fast they were nothing but a blur. As soon as it had started, however, the wild wind stopped and the book slammed shut with a sickening crack, the image of the young girl kicking the chair out from under her to coming to the forefront of his mind, obstructing his vision as he flinched away from the sound of her breaking neck, squeezing his eyes shut and throwing the book as far away from him as possible.

After a few seconds of nothing, Hiro opened his eyes hesitantly, scared of what might be in the room with him, and was relieved to note that no one was there. A quick scan around revealed that the book had landed in the far corner of the room, underneath the navy coat. Not wanting to retrieve it, Hiro took a few deep breaths and sunk to his knees, trying desperately to keep his trembling under control. It wouldn't do to have both his aunt _and_ his older brother on his case for looking so terrified – even if he was. What would he tell them anyway? They wouldn't believe him. Aunt Cass would look at him in sympathy and try to feed him, while Tadashi would just think he was downright crazy, especially after falling out of the tree.

A few more minutes passed, and Aunt Cass' voice could be heard from the foot of the stairs, calling them for dinner. Hiro found that his shaky breathing was more or less back to normal, and although his hands were still trembling, it was manageable and he was sure he could hide it from his family while they ate dinner.

Climbing to his feet and trying not to wobble as his knees threatened to cave in, Hiro made his way downstairs, his mind centring on nothing but the diary he now considered to be haunted.


	9. Research

That night, Hiro had stayed downstairs even after Aunt Cass and Tadashi had left the room, his fingers flying across the keypad of his laptop as he typed in search after search, trying to find information on how to deal with the paranormal. He had been seated at the kitchen table for a couple of hours now, and still could find nothing that bared any sort of resemblance to his experiences.

A webpage caught his eye, and Hiro leaned close to the screen as he scrolled down the page, skimming over the words and taking mental notes of all the techniques the author had used to get rid of their 'ghost problem'. Hiro wasn't entirely comfortable with giving the strange happenings a cause, let alone a name, but if it got him results then he didn't care. All of a sudden, the lighting in the room began to move as he finally moved onto another webpage, and Hiro looked around in confusion as the shadows danced and warped, much like they had when the lamp had swung before. The only difference was that now, he was alone.

Hesitantly, Hiro looked up and let out a small gasp of fear as he saw the light fixture hanging above him swinging, getting faster and faster and dangerously close to hitting the ceiling or snapping. Hiro's breathing escalated as the movements became more and more violent, as if someone was there physically pushing the lamp, daring it to hit the ceiling and shatter. Just as Hiro was getting ready to push up from his seat and bolt from the room, a voice made him jump violently, just as the sound of material hitting the ground could be heard from behind him.

"Hiro?" Hiro turned to his brother, his wide eyes showing Tadashi just how frightened he was. As Tadashi ran over to see what was wrong with his younger brother, Hiro looked at the floor behind the chair he was sitting on and gasped, flying from his seat and all but smacking into his elder brother, whose arms instinctively moved to wrap protectively around his small frame. "Hiro, what's wrong?" Tadashi asked, frowning in concern as Hiro's hold on him tightened. Moving his gaze to where Hiro had been looking, Tadashi was confused to see nothing but the navy blue coat he'd seen hanging in his younger brother's room, now lying crumpled on the floor as if someone had dropped it vertically from a height. Slowly, Hiro moved his head so he could make eye contact with Tadashi, and without letting go of his brother, turned to look at the coat with a whimper.

"I didn't move the coat, Tadashi…" Hiro said quietly, fear lining his shaking voice. "I didn't move it, but the light was swinging and I heard it fall and –"

"Hey, hey," said Tadashi, pushing Hiro back to hold him at arm's length, scanning him for any sort of physical problem before meeting his frightened eyes. "What are you talking about? You didn't move the coat?"

Hiro shook his head tearfully and Tadashi grimly looked at the coat lying lifelessly on the floor. It seemed as though he wasn't the only one experiencing strange things – they were happening to his little brother too.

"Have you noticed anything else going on?" asked Tadashi hesitantly, as if he were afraid of the answer.

Hiro nodded his head, "Yeah."

"Well, come on then." Tadashi picked up Hiro's laptop, not missing his latest search on the paranormal, and tucked it under one arm, pressing the other hand against the small of Hiro's back and guiding him to the living room.

* * *

"Well, sounds like you've been having quite the adventure," said Tadashi, attempting to lighten the mood.

"You could say the same for yourself," replied Hiro, having calmed down since the incident in the kitchen. The two brothers had told each other everything they'd witnessed, from Hiro finding the rope, to the dead woman Tadashi found, to the moving objects that seemed to follow Hiro. Hiro waited a moment, before looking up at his brother. "Tadashi, I think there's a ghost."

"Wow, that's some deduction, little brother," Tadashi teased, before he became serious again. "I don't know what we're going to do about it though. Did you find anything useful on the paranormal during your late night research?"

Hiro blushed a little at being caught out, before he pulled it closer from where Tadashi had placed it on the coffee table, opening the screen.

"Not really," he replied, once again scrolling through the pages. "I can't find anything that exactly fits what's been going on. People have things moving around, but they don't have the rope, or they have the rope, but instead the ghost _grabs_ them."

"Let's just be thankful it hasn't touched us," Tadashi said, choosing to ignore Hiro's muttered "Yet".

"I don't understand how they know how to get rid of them, though. There's no rhyme or rhythm to it at all – they just throw away or burn a bunch of stuff and it seems to defy logic!"

"And what?" asked Tadashi with a grin, "The existence of the paranormal is logical?"

Hiro looked at him blankly for a moment and then blinked. "Point taken."

"What if you're going about this wrong?" asked Tadashi suddenly, after a few seconds of thoughtful silence. "All people are different, but we all pretty much take the same medicine if we're sick or have a headache, and in most cases it works fine!"

"So you're saying ghosts are like people?"

"C'mon, Hiro, use that big brain of yours," replied Tadashi, absently ruffling his brother's hair as he continued to type. "Ghosts _are_ people. They may _haunt_ in different ways, but at the end of the day, a cure for one should be a cure for all, like with people."

"Are you quoting _The_ _Three Musketeers_?"

"_Think_, Hiro. If these people are saying that, for example, setting the house on fire works, and there are quite a few sources that say the same thing, then they're probably going to be pretty reliable."

"We're _not_ setting the house on fire."

"I _know_ – bad example."

"And anyway, you said it yourself – not all medicine works for everyone. It's not guaranteed, even if it does help for most people. What if we're that one? What if we've got the once case that can't be cured?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I'm going to keep researching to see what I can find, although I have a pretty good idea already of what tends to work universally."

"What can I do?" Hiro asked eagerly, leaning over to watch the screen of the laptop.

"_You_, Hiro, can go to bed. It's late, knucklehead, and you _really_ need your beauty sleep."

Hiro physically deflated and moaned in annoyance, grumbling under his breath as he dragged his feet all the way to the door. Tadashi chuckled and shook his head as he heard his little brother slowly shuffling along the hallway, before settling down to research the paranormal. He would do anything to keep his family safe – even pull an all-nighter here and there. Anyway, he was a college student. Sleep deprivation was in his blood.

* * *

"Boys," said Aunt Cass, twisting to face her nephews as she stirred the bacon in the frying pan. Last night I got a call from a friend – her husband sadly died in a car crash yesterday, so I'll be going to stay with her for a couple of days to keep her company. She's not too far away, and she really needs someone to be with, so I'm trusting you to be good. Can I do that?"

"Yes, Aunt Cass," replied both Tadashi and Hiro in almost practiced unity.

"Thank you boys, I'm sorry this has come up in the middle of our holiday, but I'll be sure to make it up to you once I get back!" she replied with a warm smile, before going back to the breakfast sizzling on the cooker.

As soon as her back was turned, Hiro looked over expectantly to Tadashi, raising an eyebrow. Tadashi nodded, sliding over his notebook. It was something he used to write down his inventions – much like the one Hiro owned – and he very rarely let his little brother look inside it. Hiro's eyes widened as he read over the annotations of roughly-drawn sketches, whistling lowly.

"Do we have the parts to make that?" he whispered, fearful of his aunt hearing what they were saying.

"Yeah, I brought loads." replied Tadashi, grinning at Hiro's shocked face, "What? She said no _building_, not no _bringing_. And besides, what she doesn't know can't hurt her."

Hiro didn't get a chance to answer, however, as his aunt spun around with a plate full of steaming bacon and eggs. "Boys, no whispering – you'll make me start stress eating again. I think we've had enough of that for one lifetime, don't you?"

Hiro and Tadashi grinned at their aunt, before tucking in to her delicious breakfast.

* * *

**A/N: Really sorry that it's been a week since I last updated, but I've been pretty ill and couldn't look at a computer screen without my eyes aching, so apologies for that. At least it was that I physically couldn't update and not that I forgot (plus, school work is piling up for the fast approaching exams!). It's so short because I have a lot of work to catch up on, but I wanted to get something out to you guys asap, so sorry about the length.**

**Thank you so much for the reviews, I know I don't say this often (because I feel like having an A/N takes away from the story, so I only use it when I need to), but I really do appreciate the comments, I love reading them! Please keep reviewing! :)**

**Also note that I may change the name to something like 'Apparitions' in the future, as this one isn't doing it for me anymore, so keep a look out for updates just in case the name changes**


	10. Plan

"And I think…" Tadashi said, tightening a screw with his screwdriver, "We're done." He sat back, putting his weight on his arms as he admired his and Hiro's work. Cass had left about an hour after lunch, and it was now well into the afternoon.

"Finally," replied Hiro, also looking at their latest creation. The two had had to build their own night vision camera, as there was nowhere nearby they could buy one, and they hadn't thought it'd be needed, so didn't pack one. Luckily, Cass had brought along a video camera to document the holiday, and had completely forgotten to use it, meaning the brothers were free to mess around, adding the night vision feature as a box screwed to the side with coloured wires attaching it to the camera.

"It didn't take that long, Hiro," said Tadashi with a smirk, picking the camera up. "This," he pointed to the box, "not only gives high quality night vision, but it _also_ supplies a two-way feed, meaning it can wirelessly connect to your phone and offer a feed of what it's showing."

"Cool!" said Hiro, reaching out for their invention. "So what're we gonna do with it?"

"Well, I was thinking about those dreams you've been having and those…_apparitions_ I've been seeing, and they seem to be linked. I also took the liberty of researching this house – which took me most of the night, by the way – and found out that a family used to live here." He opened up the screen of the laptop sitting beside him and spun it round, pushing it towards Hiro. "A girl and her mother both committed suicide here, the girl after she found her mother dead in the bathtub. The father was so overrun with guilt that he grabbed his shotgun and went around the village, killing everyone he came across before stabbing himself in the heart once he returned – in the _kitchen_ of all places."

"Woah," whispered Hiro, scrolling down the webpage. He stopped suddenly, leaning forwards to get a closer look at a picture on the website. "Hey, I think this is them," he muttered. "Is that…it is!"

"What?" asked Tadashi curiously, leaning over to try to look at what his little brother had spotted.

"There!" Hiro turned the laptop back around so it was facing Tadashi. "The father, he's wearing that coat from my room! The navy one!"

Tadashi let out a low whistle as he scanned the picture, confirming for himself that the coat really was the navy one that seemed to be haunting his little brother. It was.

"The woman I'm seeing is obviously the mother who drowned herself, and it doesn't say here but I'll bet anything that little girl hung herself from the tree in the garden,"

"With the rope I swung on." muttered Hiro, "_Great_."

"From what I've gathered, we need to burn everything that connects the family to our world – something they had an emotional attachment to, like a teddy bear, or the thing that caused their death,"

"Like the knife," finished Hiro.

"Like the knife." said Tadashi, locking eyes with his brother.

"So what's the plan?" asked Hiro.

"I'm thinking we should start at the top. The loft seems to have a lot of activity going on, so maybe we should try there first and see if we can find anything that's keeping the ghosts here. According to multiple sources, if we burn the stuff, they should be 'freed'."

"Woah, woah. Wait a sec – there's _no way_ I'm going into that creepy old loft! No way!"

"Which is why _I'll_ be the one going," replied Tadashi, switching on his camera to make sure the feed worked. "Hey – turn on your phone, will you?"

"_Tadashi_!" exclaimed Hiro, turning on his phone. "You can't go either! Who knows what you'll find up there this time! It's only gotten worse so far and you've been up there _twice_!"

"I know, but it's the only way we're getting rid of these things," he pressed a few buttons on his video camera. "Now connect to the camera, it should be available."

"Are you _sure_ there's no other way?" Hiro asked, doing as he was instructed.

"Yes, unless you wanna take a trip to the back of the creepy garden to climb the tree," said Tadashi with a sly grin. "In the _dark_," Hiro glanced behind him and looked out the window, surprised at the fact that it was already dark outside – where had the time gone?

"Uh, on second thought, maybe this _is_ the best option. But make sure you keep this thing on at all times. I'm serious, Tadashi."

"No problem, little brother. We'll need it on anyway, just in case you see something I don't." He ruffled his brother's unkempt hair as he saw the worry on his face. "Don't panic – trust me, I'm no fan of the idea either, but it needs to be done and I'm not about to send you or Mochi into the lion's den." Hiro managed a half-hearted laugh as they both got to their feet.

"If we were in a horror movie, you'd be the guy people would be screaming at to get the heck out of the room. Y'know, the 'no! Don't go into the basement!' guy. You'd make a lot of viewers angry since you're about to do it for a _third time_!"

"Oh, and you're the poster boy for good decisions, I suppose?"

Hiro gave his brother a crooked smile, "You know it."

"Right," said Tadashi, turning back to the device. "I'll turn this thing on as soon as I get there. We'll be able to talk on the microphone I added."

Hiro looked at the newly-discovered bit of equipment on his brother's camera before turning his attention to his phone, as if he were expecting it to show a feed already. "Okay."

"Hey," Hiro looked up at Tadashi. "We'll be fine."

* * *

"Are you getting this?" asked Tadashi, sweeping the camera round to give Hiro a full view of the dark room. He hadn't switched on the light (as everyone knows ghost hunting is best done in the dark), so the only way he could see was through the screen on his camera, and the darkness around him was giving him the chills. Every impulse in his body was screaming at him to get out, or at least to turn the light on, but he knew he needed to do this to keep his family safe, and any other family taking a holiday here. _Someone has to help._

_"Yeah,"_ he heard Hiro reply through the speaker. _"There's nothing much going on though."_ He did another pan of the room before Hiro's voice filled the silent space again, _"Wait, didn't you say there was a bath and a violin there last time?"_

"I did," replied Tadashi, suddenly remembering the bathtub in the middle of the room, which was now strangely – and thankfully – absent. Putting his bad memory down to nerves, Tadashi began to make his way around the room slowly, moving the camera whenever Hiro thought he'd spotted something. "You get anything yet?" he asked, desperate to leave the room as soon as he could. It was cold in the loft, which didn't do much to calm the shivers running up and down his spine, although whether they were due to temperature or something else was up for debate.

_"No, not yet," _Tadashi sighed in disappointment, before he froze as Hiro spoke again. _"wait a sec…"_

"What is it?"

_"Turn back to where you were. No, no, to the left. Your _other_ left!"_

Slowly, Tadashi turned, trying to keep the camera still in his shaking hands as Hiro told him to stop.

"What is it?" asked Tadashi. The screen was showing nothing but the far corner of the room where the violin had once stood, with boxes piled high along the walls. "What do you see?"

_"You mean you can't see her?"_ Hiro whispered, and it took Tadashi a moment to figure out what it was his younger brother had said.

"See _who_, Hiro?" Tadashi grew impatient, shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other as he waited for his brother to reply.

"_Her_,"

"Hiro, I see nothing."

_"Not even on the screen?"_ Hiro's voice was unusually high, and Tadashi found himself suddenly wishing he was anywhere but there.

"That's where I'm looking, bonehead."

_"What about in real life?"_

Tadashi hesitantly looked up from the screen, holding his breath as if he'd expected there to be someone standing in front of him, but there was only the darkness of the night time that hung around him.

"Nothing. Hiro, what do you see?"

_"There's a woman standing there…"_

"Yes, we've already established that."

_"She's dead."_ Tadashi's blood ran cold. _"And she's staring right at you."_

"She's _what_?"

_"Just…_looking_ at you."_

"Are you sure?"

_"Tadashi, I don't think I could imagine this if I tried. It's a little obscured from the night vision, but –"_

"Hiro?"

_"Tadashi."_

"Hiro, what's going on?" Tadashi could feel his heart thumping in his chest, the gushing of blood filling his ears.

_"Tadashi you _need_ to get out of there."_

"Why?"

_"_Now_, Tadashi!"_

"But Hiro –"

"_Tadashi!"_


	11. Hiro Is Here

A _whoosh_ of icy air pushed against Tadashi, and he leaned forwards in an attempt to stay standing, gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut to protect them against the cold wind. As soon as it had started, however, it stopped, and Tadashi looked around the room in confusion before his attention was brought back to the screen of his camera. As he'd expected, there was nothing there.

"Hiro, what was that?" he asked, surprising himself at how shaky his voice sounded.

_"I, uh I don't know. She just kinda ran at you, like, _really_ fast."_ Hiro also sounded shaken, and Tadashi felt a sudden urge to reach through the camera and hold him in a tight embrace.

"Do you know where she went?" asked Tadashi, turning around slowly as he had done before to give his younger brother a good view of the room.

_"No, she's not there anymore – _ow_!"_

"Hiro? What's wrong?"

_"Oh, nothing, I just stubbed my toe on the bed. I've, uh, been pacing a little."_ Hiro chuckled sheepishly, and Tadashi let out a relieved laugh, running a hand down his face._ "Oh, great. Looks like Baymax has joined the party."_ Tadashi smiled as he heard the distant sound of his robot greeting Hiro.

"Okay. Well, aside from our most recent ghostly encounter, I don't think there's anything here for us to burn now that the violin and the bath have disappeared."

_"How would you even burn a bath?" _wondered Hiro as Tadashi began moving towards the door, flicking on the light switch and allowing himself a moment to breath and calm himself as he looked around the room.

"We'd find a way," replied Tadashi, slowly making his way around the room, this time in the light, to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

_"Oh, and on your way back can you turn up the heating?"_

"Why?" asked Tadashi absently, as he peeked inside a few boxes. There was nothing but parts for wardrobes and beds, dusty clothing, and the odd photo album.

_"Because it's suddenly got freezing cold in here. I'm talking arctic temperature, so if you could check out the heating, that'd be great."_

"What did you say?" Tadashi froze in his tracks, feeling his heart begin to beat faster as he processed his brother's words. "Hiro."

_"I _said_, you should check the heating. Jeez, do you need your ears tested or something? I'm sure we can book an appointment for when we get back."_

"Hiro, how cold is it where you are? This is important."

_"Is now really the best time to mother hen?"_

"Hiro!"

_"Okay, fine. It's pretty cold here. I'm gonna need gloves soon."_

"Come and meet me." Tadashi all but sprinted towards the door, although had to slow down in his descent down the steep, narrow stairs.

_"What? Why?"_

"Just do it, Hiro."

_"Not until you tell me why."_ Tadashi cursed his brother's tendency to be stubborn, feeling the panic building in his chest.

"Where exactly did she run to?"

_"What?"_

"The woman, when she ran at me. What direction was she heading in?"

_"Yours, duh."_

"You know what I mean, Hiro. Was she really looking at _me_?"

_"What? Tadashi, are you sure you're feeling okay?"_

"Who was she making eye contact with? Me, or you?"

_"Well…"_ Hiro paused in thought. _"It was in your direction, but her eyes seemed fixed on the camera lens, like she was looking through it straight at me. It was really creepy."_

"And where _exactly_ did she run to?"

_"Oh my God."_

"Hiro!"

_"Me, Tadashi, she was running at me. She was making eye contact with _me_ the entire time!"_

* * *

Hiro felt his heart rate speed up as his mind clouded with panic. His bedroom seemed to be cooling down with every second and he could now see small clouds of condensed air forming in front of him every time he breathed. Suddenly, he heard the sound of water dripping, and hHHe felt his stomach flip as he turned to look beside him, gasping loudly as he realised there was a puddle on the ground that definitely wasn't there before. The old floorboards were soaked with water and it seeped into the darkened wood, expanding as if it had been poured there seconds ago.

"Baymax?" Hiro looked up with fearful, wide eyes at the robot. "Is there someone here?"

"Yes." Baymax replied, tilting his head as if he were confused by the question. "There is someone next to you."

Hiro started to call for Tadashi, but instead let out a strangled scream as he felt an icy hand wrap around his ankle in an iron grip. He looked down to try to catch a glimpse of what was holding him, but there was nothing there – just air. Hiro panicked and looked desperately to Baymax, before the thing holding his ankle pulled, sending him crashing to the suddenly dry floor.

"Tadashi!" Hiro called out desperately, screaming in fright as the thing holding him began to drag him towards the back of the room where the wardrobe was. Hiro dug his fingernails into the floorboards in an attempt to prevent the frozen hand from pulling him, but it was in vain as his nails painfully scraped across the wood. He scrabbled at the floor, trying to get some kind of grip to stop himself from being pulled, but the more he tried the faster he was dragged. Hiro looked behind him and let out another scream of terror as he saw the doors of the wardrobe were wide open and void of clothing, as if waiting for him to enter. He renewed his efforts, tears of frustration pouring down his face as he realised he was helpless in the vice-like grip of the thing that had him.

* * *

"HIRO!" Tadashi burst in through the door to his little brother's room, the screams that came through the speaker on the camera echoing in his mind. He heard his brother calling out and looked over to the wardrobe just in time to see Hiro's outstretched hand disappearing inside the wardrobe, before the door slammed shut with an echoing _bang_, leaving nothing but a silent room.

It took Tadashi mere seconds to sprint to the wardrobe, trying with all his might to force the door open before calling Baymax over.

"Kick it down!" he said desperately. Baymax's leg raised and hit the door gently. "Punch it!" Baymax raised his arm and made contact with the wood in a pathetic attempt at a punch, and Tadashi made a strangled noise of frustration.

Running towards Hiro's bedside table, Tadashi grabbed the lamp, not bothering to unplug it as he forcefully yanked it from the surface, causing the cable to be pulled from the base, leaving frayed wiring coming out of the ends of the plastic covering. With all his strength, he lifted it above his head and brought it crashing down on the door a number of times, the last time finally succeeding in breaking the door, as well as fracturing the lamp, causing spider web cracks to cover the porcelain base. He threw the broken light to the side, paying no attention to it as it completely smashed upon contact with the floor. He wrapped his fingers around the splintered wood where the lamp had made a hole, pulling the old door open with such force it was surprising the thing stayed on its hinges, ignoring the pain in his fingers as the sharp splinters dug into his hands. He searched the inside, pushing aside clothing – including the navy coat – and banging at the wooden panels at the back before slumping to the ground in defeat, feeling tears beginning to burn in his eyes as he rested his head in his hands.

"Hiro is here."

"What?" Tadashi looked up at his robot, who was standing above him.

"Hiro is here."

"No, Baymax, he isn't. We just watched him get pulled into oblivion." Tadashi knew he should, but he just couldn't find the energy to cry. How would he ever explain this to Aunt Cass?

"Hiro is here. He is still in the building."

It took Tadashi a moment to process what Baymax had said, before he jumped up with renewed energy and hope shining in his wide eyes. "What? Where?"

"I do not know, but he is here."

Tadashi barely let Baymax finish his sentence before he took off, running out of the room and calling for Hiro.


	12. Drowning

Tadashi sat on the stairs with his head in his hands, letting the tears slide down his cheeks. He'd looked all over the house – including the loft – and hadn't found a single trace of Hiro. He'd even gone outside, and had still found nothing.

As he was about to get up and retreat to his room to be truly alone, a distant sound caught his ears, seeming as if it were coming from below him. Making his way down the rest of the stairs, Tadashi found the noise was getting louder until he reached a door leading to what he presumed was a cupboard under the stairs.

"This wasn't here before…" he muttered, and as soon as the words had left his lips a banging could be heard coming from the other side of the door, accompanied by muffled yelling. "Hiro?" he called, wrenching the door open. The calls for help were much louder, and recognisably Hiro's, but the only thing inside was a small L-shaped area, with another door on the left. Tadashi ran to it and tried to pull it open, but he found to his dismay that he couldn't.

"Hiro?" he called, pounding on the door.

"Tadashi!" he almost cried in relief as he heard his little brother's voice.

"Hiro, hold on, I'm gonna get you out! Stand back!" he took a couple of steps back, before running at the door, jumping and pushing all his weight against the thick oak as he rammed his shoulder into it, but it did nothing. He tried again and again, but he was still unable to move the door. "Baymax, get down here!" shouted Tadashi, and he heard his robot's distant reply from Hiro's room.

"Hiro, are you okay?" he asked his brother, leaning his forehead against the old wood.

"Tadashi," Hiro gasped, and Tadashi realised that he was crying. "Tadashi, it's filling with water."

"What?"

"There's w-water coming in, but I don't know w-where from! It's a b-basement and I'm on the stairs and I – Tadashi, it's past my knees already!"

"Okay, okay, stay calm. I'll find a way to get you out, I promise."

"It's cold and rising r-really fast!"

"I know, I know, I just need you to stay calm for me, okay? I'll think of something."

"It's up to my stomach!"

Tadashi swore under his breath as he once again tried to open the door, punching it in frustration as it still refused to open and wincing in agony as pain shot through his hand.

"Tadashi, I'm gonna drown!" Tadashi's stomach flipped as he heard the raw terror in his brother's voice, but he refused to show how panicked he was. Hiro was going to get out of this – they both were.

"No, no you're not gonna drown. Hiro do you hear me? I won't let you die. I'll _never_ let that happen."

"I can't get out…" Hiro hiccupped and Tadashi blinked away the tears threatening to fall.

"That's why I'm getting you out, okay? Do you trust me?"

"Tadashi, it's –"

"Forget the water Hiro, just focus on my voice. Do you trust me?"

"Yes."

"Have I ever let you down before?"

"Well…"

"Hiro," Tadashi said, smiling at the humour in his brother's voice. It was comforting knowing that Hiro hadn't completely lost hope.

"No, you've never let me down," said Hiro, letting out a breathy laugh.

"Okay, so what makes you think I'm gonna start now?"

"So what's your plan?" Hiro asked with a sniff.

"I need to go and find something to open the door with. I'll be right back, so stay calm; I won't let anything hurt you." He backed away from the door after hearing his brother's quiet reply, standing in the hallway as he wracked his brains for something – anything – in the house that could help him get the door open.

His eyes suddenly widened in realisation, and at record speed he sprinted to the utility room, returning with their baseball bat in his hands.

"Hiro, stand back! I'm gonna try something!"

"I'm swimming, Tadashi!"

Despite the humour in the words, the voice behind them said otherwise, and with his brother at the forefront of his mind, Tadashi took a deep breath before swinging the bat at the door.

"Tadashi, hurry, I'm about to go under!"

"Hang on! I'm gonna get you out, I promise!"

He tightened his grip on the handle, sweaty hands sliding on the rubber before taking one, two, three more hits at the door, the fourth one finally making a dent in the wood. He knew his brother was now underwater, and with this knowledge sitting in his conscience, he focused on the dent, hitting it over and over again until it made a hole. He hacked at the small hole, making it larger and larger as water began to gush out, spilling onto the floor and soaking his feet and the bottoms of his trousers.

He heard a gasp from the other side of the door, and relief rushed through him as it sunk in that his brother was alive.

"Baymax!"

"Tadashi, I am on my way."

He could hear his robot making his way down the stairs and continued beating at the door with the baseball bat even as he heard Baymax coming down the corridor.

"Hurry up!" he called.

"I am not fast."

"Yeah, no kidding!" came Hiro's breathless voice from behind the door, and Tadashi once more took comfort in knowing that his brother still had his sense of humour.

"Make the hole bigger," Tadashi instructed, pointing at the hole in the door with water still pouring out of it.

Baymax moved forwards and gripped the sides of the hole, using his brute strength to pull the door, splintering the wood and ripping away part it away, letting even more water gush out. Tadashi joined in with his bat, and before long the hole was large enough for a small person to fit through.

Hiro flew through the hole along with the last of the water, being caught by Tadashi before he could hit the far wall. Tadashi picked him up, cradling his head into the crook of his neck and carrying him out of the cupboard under the stairs, crouching down and sitting with him in the hallway.

Hiro coughed and spluttered as he lay in Tadashi's lap, and Tadashi turned him on his side as he coughed out any water that had managed to get into his lungs, which luckily, wasn't very much at all. As soon as he was done coughing, Hiro turned over into his brother's embrace and cried onto his chest, all the stress and emotion from the whole experience escaping him in waves of salty tears. Tadashi wrapped his arms around Hiro as the young boy's chest heaved with sobs, whispering soothing words of comfort to his little brother as he hugged him close, planting a kiss on the top of his head and stroking his soaked hair.

Eventually, Hiro leaned out of the embrace, tear streaks staining his flushed cheeks and mixing with the water droplets still decorating his face. He rubbed at his red, swollen eyes with the back of his hand and laughed shakily.

"Sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," replied Tadashi. "Well, except for scaring me half to death – don't ever do something like that again, kid, or I'll lose my mind," he rubbed the top of Hiro's messy hair fondly, causing the damp locks to stick up haphazardly before planting another kiss on his baby brother's forehead. "If I were in your position, there's no way I would've been able to hold it together as well as you did. I'm so proud of you."

Hiro sighed, slumping against his elder brother in exhaustion. "It was scary."

"I know, Hiro," said Tadashi, again pulling his younger sibling close to him. "I know."

* * *

"Do you have it?" called Tadashi, watching as his younger brother balanced precariously on a tree branch.

"Almost there…" said Hiro, grunting a little as he struggled with the penknife, trying to cut through the thick rope tied around the branch he was sitting on. "Got it!" he tucked the penknife into his back pocket before throwing down the rope.

Tadashi sidestepped the falling noose and bent down to pick it up once it had landed on the floor in a crumpled heap. His hands were stained green as he coiled the rope to make it easier to hold whilst keeping an eye on his little brother as he jumped from the last branch.

After the traumatic event with the flooding basement, the brothers had decided that they couldn't wait until the next day to get rid of the spirits, so had opted to stay up until the early hours of the morning collecting everything they needed to burn.

"Is that it?" asked Hiro doubtfully, looking at the rope in his brother's hand.

"No, there must be something else," replied Tadashi as he dropped the heavy coil on the ground. Beside it lay the stuffed animals from Tadashi's wardrobe that had previously followed Hiro around his bedroom. "Wait – the coat! And what about the knife the father used?"

"The coat?" echoed Hiro in confusion, before his eyes lit up in understanding. "Oh yeah! One sec, I'll go and grab it. You find the knife." Tadashi smiled as he watched his brother disappear into the house, before frowning at the pile on the ground. If this didn't work, then Tadashi didn't know what they were going to do – probably attempt to make sure no one rented the house ever again, although he hadn't quite figured out how they would do that.

* * *

Hiro pushed open his door, stepping into his room for the first time since being dragged into the wardrobe. A shiver went down his spine as the memory of the icy steel grip on his ankle came rushing back to him, and he shook his head to get rid of it. He knew he still wasn't safe, but in all the scary movies Hiro had seen, the ghosts never pulled the same stunt twice. _I should be fine – I hope._

As he was making his way towards the wardrobe, Hiro stopped in his tracks, staying completely still and straining his ears for any sound. _That's weird; I could've sworn I'd heard something._ Ignoring the voice at the back of his head screaming at him to _get the hell out of there_, Hiro continued, only to stop with a gasp a second later, spinning around to see if someone was behind him. _Okay, that time I _know_ there was someone there._ As he was about to turn back to the wardrobe, the sound of heavy, gasping breaths filled his ears and Hiro let out a small cry of fear, backing up slowly and looking around him, trying to find the source of the sound. He soon frowned upon realising there was nothing there – nothing he could see, at least.

_No, no, it won't get me again. I'm not scared. I can do this. Focus, Hiro._

Hiro narrowed his eyes and looked towards wardrobe, making his way towards it yet again, his pace doubling in speed in his determination.

_Don't turn back._

The breathing was overtaking all other sound entering his ears, filling his mind with desperate, wet gasps, as if someone were on the brink of death, clinging to the last shreds of life. The lamp hanging above his head suddenly began to swing violently, like the one in the kitchen had, and the bulb started to flicker, buzzing as it did so, although Hiro barely heard this over the sound of the breathing.

_Keep going._

By the time Hiro wrenched open the door of the wardrobe, the breathing sounded as if it were in his head, echoing painfully around his skull. He could feel cool air tickling the back of his neck with every exhale and could sense some kind of presence behind him. As he reached out for the coat, the temperature of the air around him dropped, causing to goose bumps to appear on his arms, but he still didn't turn round, and he didn't run. Instead, Hiro gathered every ounce of courage he had left and yanked the coat off of the hanger, squeezing his eyes shut as he prepared himself for whatever horrors awaited him.

Nothing happened. Hiro first opened one eye, then the other, his death grip on the coat relaxing slightly from where he'd pulled it tight against his chest. He listened for a few more seconds, ears straining for any kind of sound before he let out a sigh of relief, his body visibly relaxing as his shoulders slumped in the knowledge that nothing was out to get him at the moment.

* * *

**A/N: I'm so sorry it's late, but I'm literally bang in the middle of my A Level exams, like, in the weekend separating the two weeks, so I hope you'll excuse me for not updating for so long. Really glad you guys seem to be enjoying this, and I still love reading your reviews! They make me feel that much happier in all the stress of exams haha, so thank you, and don't stop!**

**Btw, hope that was enough Hiro whump for those of you who have been asking for it. Your wish is my command ;)**


	13. Dirty Plumbing

"Baymax, I could really use your help here," said Tadashi, slamming closed yet another drawer.

"What are you looking for, Tadashi?" asked Baymax, cocking his head as he watched Tadashi dash around the kitchen.

Tadashi pushed a cupboard door closed with a _bang_ before opening another, shoving aside patterned mugs with little care as he tried to search the entire inside. "I'm looking for the father's knife."

"What does it look like?" asked Baymax, opening a drawer Tadashi had already searched and peering in at the contents.

"I dunno, Baymax, it's a knife. Just a regular old knife."

"Tadashi, I believe I have found it." Tadashi looked over in surprise, before he sighed in exasperation at the sight of his robot holding a handful of knives from one of the cutlery drawers.

"No, Baymax, it'd have to be sharp and probably pointed. Actually, come to think about it, it'd have to be blood-stained too. That narrows it down a little, but I'll be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if there was more than one blood-stained knife in the house." He shook his head with a fond smile as he watched Baymax stare at the collection of knives in his hand. "Here – I'll take these." He used both hands to take the knifes from Baymax. As he dropped them back into the drawer, one of the sharper knives sliced his finger on the way down. "Ow!" Tadashi looked down at the damage, cradling his cut finger and watched as droplets of blood bubbled up from the wound, creating small blotches of red in a short line.

"Tadashi, are you hurt?" asked Baymax in concern, waddling over.

"No, Baymax, I'm fine. It's not very deep." He made to go back to searching, but Baymax placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Tadashi, you need to run that under cold water."

"Baymax, I really don't have time for – "

"Your health should be your number one priority. Don't you want to set a good example for Hiro to follow?"

Tadashi stared at his creation in disbelief, his mouth slightly agape at the level of compassion Baymax had shown in one short sentence. _Is he getting smarter by _himself_?_ Tadashi thought, before finally snapping out of his freeze-frame.

"All right, but not for long. I need to get back to looking for that knife." He said, turning the squeaky handle on the sink and watching as the tap spluttered to life, coughing out water unevenly as a low groaning sound emanated from somewhere in the pipes.

"Wow, Aunt Cass wasn't kidding when she said there was something wrong with the plumbing," he mused. "It almost sounds as if something's inside – " he stopped and stared at the tap, "the pipes…"

"Tadashi?" asked Baymax, looking almost as if he felt uncomfortable with Tadashi's sudden silence.

"Baymax, get me a spanner."

* * *

Hiro walked into the kitchen looking very pleased with himself and whistling merrily, the navy coat slung over his shoulder. He stopped short as his gaze landed on Tadashi, and looked at his brother as if he'd grown another head.

"Uh, dude? What are you doing?"

Tadashi went to sit upright from his crouched position leaning into the cupboard under the sink, but instead hit his head hard against the wooden counter above him.

"_Ow_,"

"Tadashi, how – "

"Baymax, now's not the best time." he sat back and looked over at Hiro, rubbing the back of his head, where thankfully no damage seemed to have been done.

"So," said Hiro, slinging the coat over the back of a dining chair before leaning against it with folded arms, looking at his brother with raised eyebrows. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Don't look at me like that," Tadashi said with a small frown, although it didn't stay for long. "I remembered what Cass said about there being something wrong with the pipes, and if you listen, whenever you turn on the tap they make a groaning noise, almost as if there's something _in_ there."

"Not that I'm against housekeeping, Tadashi, but I really don't think this is the best time to start practicing for a future in plumbing."

"Smartass." Tadashi countered with a smirk. "I _mean_, what if there's something _in_ the pipes?"

"You just said that." Hiro deadpanned.

"Something like a knife, maybe?"

At this, Hiro's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and he pushed off from the chair he was leaning on.

"You think the knife's in the plumbing?"

"Bingo," replied Tadashi with a short nod, crouching back down to resume his work with the spanner.

"Why would he hide it there?"

"I don't think he did, considering he'd be dead at that point. Unless, of course, he dragged his bleeding, dying body to the sink–"

"Okay, who would hide it there then?" Hiro interrupted.

"I don't know, Hiro. I know you think I'm old, but I wasn't actually there"

"Now who's being a smartass?"

"Got it!" Tadashi called, as something under the pipes gave way with a _clang_.

"The knife?" Hiro walked closer, peering over his brother's shoulder curiously.

"No, I dislocated the pipe so now we can see what's inside."

"Gross."

Tadashi shrugged, "probably, but it's better than having a haunted house."

"Uh, why don't we just leave?" Hiro asked after a moment of silence, shifting from foot to foot, suddenly nervous. "Like tell Aunt Cass we're homesick or something, and leave it to the next person? They'd probably be more suited for this than us anyway."

Tadashi narrowed his eyes. "Hiro, what if it was an elderly couple, hm? Or maybe a family with young kids? Do you think they'd fare better? What do you think the chances are that the _Ghostbusters_ are gonna be here next?"

"We're not the Ghostbusters," replied Hiro in a small voice.

Tadashi sighed, "We're geniuses, Hiro. We're as close as this place is gonna get."

Hiro stood awkwardly behind his brother for a few more seconds, before hopping up onto the counter beside the sink, feeling as though he'd be helping more if he were closer. The two sat in silence for a while, with Tadashi working at the pipe and Hiro relaxing in the counter, swinging his legs so his heels banged against the wood rhythmically.

"Hey, Hiro," said Tadashi suddenly, breaking the silence. "I think I've found something. Pass me the rubber gloves."

Hiro grabbed the yellow washing up gloves from behind the tap and threw them down to his brother, who wasted no time in slipping them on.

"Is it the knife?" asked Hiro.

"I think so," replied Tadashi, and Hiro sucked in a breath, suddenly fearful at what this could lead to.

"Tadashi, are we doing the right thing here?"

"Hiro, if we left do you think you could look back and say that we'd done the right thing?" he stopped working for a moment and leaned back to look up at his younger brother.

"Well…"

"Hiro."

"No. No, that would be wrong."

"So by default, that makes this the _right_ thing then, doesn't it?"

Hiro sighed and looked down at his feet, which were still swinging against the counter, "Yeah, it does."

"Okay then, and hey," Hiro looked back to Tadashi, meeting his brother's gaze. "We'll get through this. I won't let anything happen to you, understand?"

"It's not me I'm worried about,"

"Baymax will be fine." Tadashi reassured with a knowing grin.

"_Tadashi_," Hiro complained.

"_Hiro_." Tadashi mocked Hiro's tone of voice and the teenager snorted, kicking his brother playfully.

The two shared a short, loving look before Tadashi leaned back under the sink, reaching inside the pipe as he tried to get a grip on whatever it was that was in the plumbing.

"It's a little slippery, but I think – " he gave it one last tug before it was dislodged completely, and he nearly fell back with the force of his pull. "Aha! Here," Tadashi held up the knife for Hiro to see, and the boy withdrew from it, a look of disgust evident on his face.

The knife was stained green, with blotches of mouldy-looking brown covering the black handle. The dirty water covering it made it shine, giving it a slimy quality and making it look, if possible, even more repulsive.

"Tadashi, you said there would be blood on this knife," said Baymax, looking at the knife in curiosity.

"It's been effectively _washed_ by water for years, Baymax," replied Tadashi. "The blood has long since been eroded away."

"I still wanna know who put it there. Surely if you'd just found a guy who'd stabbed himself, you wouldn't hide the knife. I think it was a murder." said Hiro.

"It could be," said Tadashi thoughtfully. "As payback for the killing spree he went on. There's no doubt that he angered and upset a lot of people, and I'd bet they'd want revenge."

"Guess we'll never know," said Hiro, looking at the grimy knife sadly. "That sucks. I really want to know now."

"Why don't you ask one of our ghostly acquaintances?" teased Tadashi. "I'm sure they'd be happy to help you out."

"Don't even joke like that, man," said Hiro, playfully nudging his brother's shoulder with his toe.

"Don't touch me with that, it's gross!" Tadashi recoiled from Hiro's foot.

"Yeah, says the guy holding a mould-covered knife."

"At least I know where it's been!"

"Yeah, in some guy's chest!"

Tadashi let out a laugh and finally stood up, shaking his head at his younger brother. "I'm gonna go and wash this in the bathroom sink. I'll be right back."

"Okay, Tadashi." replied Hiro, watching as his brother left the room, dirty knife in hand. "Baymax?" he asked suddenly, looking over at his brother's robot.

"Yes, Hiro?"

"Do you think we're gonna be okay after this?"

"Your physical condition is fine, Hiro."

"I don't mean physically."

"I do not have the correct programming in order to answer your question. I will download this information when we go home."

_Home,_ thought Hiro, _sounds good to me._

* * *

**A/N: Thank God exams are finally over for me – wish me luck on getting good results! ;)**

** Hope you liked this chapter. There wasn't much (or any) action, but I was sure to include lots of brotherly bonding to make up for it. Nevertheless, hope you enjoyed it all the same, and don't forget to leave a review! I love reading what you guys think about my fic!**


	14. Frozen Flame

"Wow Tadashi," said Hiro, looking at the knife in his brother's hand with wide eyes. "How cold was the water you washed the knife in?"

"What do you mean?" Tadashi asked, turning to look at the knife in confusion. "Oh. Oh my God." The metal blade of the sharp kitchen knife had frosted over slightly, with cobweb patterns of thin ice shimmering over the cold surface. "I don't understand, it was hot, I used hot water!" Tadashi continued to stare at the knife, before Hiro grabbed his forearm and pulled him the rest of the way to where the pile of objects laid.

"Here – burn it all." Hiro pulled the knife from Tadashi's hand and threw it on the ground, where it bounced off of the blue rabbit before hitting the cold grass.

"Is there anything else you can think of that needs to go before we do this?" Tadashi asked. "It might make them… _restless_, and this could be our only shot at getting rid of these spirits."

"I'm positive," replied Hiro with a firm nod.

"Wait – what about that diary?"

"The one that got soaked?" asked Hiro, and Tadashi nodded. "Oh, I couldn't find it anywhere. It's either already in the pile, or the ghosts destroyed it. Or, y'know. Something."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I searched for it for _ages_." Hiro replied, before laughing sheepishly. "I was actually planning on keeping it as a souvenir, but I guess that's not happening."

Tadashi hesitated, before shrugging and picking up the red container filled with gasoline he'd picked up from the garage. He poured it over objects on the ground, watching as the gasoline splashed over them, soaking them with flammable liquid.

"Do you have the matches?" Tadashi asked, throwing the empty container behind him and turning to Hiro.

"Yep," Hiro replied proudly, fishing into his jumper's pocket. "Here," he pulled out a small box of matches and opened it, preparing to light a match when Tadashi promptly snatched the match away from him.

"Nope," he said, lighting the match himself before throwing it on the soaked objects, watching with wide, hardened eyes as they immediately caught fire, the orange flames growing higher as they set alight. Tadashi placed a hand on Hiro's chest and pushed him away from the open fire, just as Baymax waddled outside.

"Tadashi," said the robot.

"Yes, Baymax?" asked Tadashi, not taking his eyes off the roaring fire.

"We are not alone."

"Is Aunt Cass back already?" asked Hiro, looking around as if he'd expected to see his aunt walking towards them. Tadashi, however, had gone a sickly shade of white and his hand fisted the material of Hiro's jumper. "Bro?" asked Hiro, looking up at his older brother worriedly.

"C'mon, c'mon," whispered Tadashi, ignoring Hiro and instead staring at the fire, willing it to burn faster.

"Tadashi, what's going on?" asked Hiro, panic lacing his voice. "Baymax?" he turned to the robot and Baymax blinked at him.

"There are three figures approaching us," replied Baymax, pointing a chubby finger in the direction of the large tree at the back of the garden.

"It's them," whispered Hiro, before speaking louder as he addressed his brother. "They're coming for us because we're getting rid of them, aren't they?" his wild eyes searched Tadashi's blank face. "_Aren't_ they?!" Hiro faltered as he watched his brother's expression slowly twist into unadulterated fear. "Tadashi?" he questioned slowly, taking his time in turning around to see what had captivated his brother's attention, reluctant to see what Tadashi was so afraid of yet his curious mind wouldn't let him keep his back turned.

Hiro's eyes widened dramatically, and a small gasp of terror escaped his lips. In the distance, just in front of the tree, was a pitch black mist. It was as if Hiro was looking into a black hole, the total abyss of the darkness shaking him to the very core.

"That's it, isn't it?" asked Hiro. "That's what you told me about. That's the darkness."

Tadashi just mutely nodded his head in answer to his brother's question, and a shiver ran down his spine as the air around them grew cold.

"Tadashi, they should be gone. Why aren't they gone?" Hiro ripped his gaze from the dark mist and turned to his brother in panic. "We've burned everything, why aren't they gone?"

"Not everything is burned." Hiro and Tadashi both spun around to fact the robot.

"What?" exclaimed Tadashi. "Of course it's all burnt – it's on fire!" he gestured wildly towards the flaming pile. "Unless… did we miss something?"

"I do not think you understand," said Baymax. "The fire isn't hot, therefore, it cannot burn."

"Tadashi!" Hiro choked out, tugging on his brother's sleeve. Tadashi spun round and cried out in shock as he realised to his dismay that the dark mist seemed to have expanded, and had also gotten closer, like it was trying to corner them in some kind of a cruel, twisted game.

"Baymax, that's impossible! Fires are hot, they burn – it's kinda what they do!"

In response to this, Baymax raised an arm and swung it through the fire. Tadashi was ready to jump towards him and stop his creation from causing himself harm, when he realised that Baymax hadn't sustained any form of an injury – not one trace of a burn could be seen on the white arm.

Hesitantly, Tadashi raised his arm too, and ignored Hiro's cry of protest as he quickly swept it through the fire, wincing and squeezing his eyes shut upon contact. He soon opened them, however, as he realised that he, too, was totally unharmed. He experimentally put his arm through the fire again, this time slower than the first, and got the same results.

"Tadashi, it's getting closer!" Hiro had turned his attention back to the approaching black mist, which was now completely covering the bottom half of the tree and over half of the garden, having more than tripled in size since he'd last checked on it.

"Hiro is correct. The three entities are closer than they were before," said Baymax. "However, their vital signs are critical and their body temperatures aren't high enough to sustain life."

"That's because there _is_ no life to sustain!" exclaimed Hiro, grabbing his head in frustration and tangling his fingers in the messy black locks.

"Hiro!" Tadashi gripped his brother's shoulders, spinning him around so they were face to face, before grabbing his wrists, pulling him closer and bending down to look him in the eye. "Calm down, we're gonna be fine, okay?"

Hiro gulped and nodded, but didn't seem convinced.

"Hey, look at me," Tadashi shook Hiro's arms as the younger boy turned to look back at the mist. "We're gonna make it out of this. You remember what I told you before? That I wouldn't let anything hurt you?" again Hiro nodded and Tadashi smiled warmly, doing his best to squash down his fear to give some form of reassurance. "I told you I'd get you out of the basement unharmed and I did, didn't I? This is the same thing."

"But I'm scared," finally admitted Hiro, looking at the ground in embarrassment.

"And who wouldn't be?" said Tadashi, ruffling his brother's messy dark locks. "You were brave when you were trapped in the water, but don't try to tell me you weren't scared. You were, weren't you?" Hiro once again nodded. "But in the end, you made it out fine. This is the same thing. I know you're scared, but just put on a brave face for a little while longer, and I promise you we'll be okay, all right?" Hiro sniffed and wiped his nose with his sleeve.

"Yeah," he replied with a watery laugh. "We can do this."

"Baymax," said Tadashi, satisfied that Hiro was okay. "How is it possible that the fire's cold?"

"Tadashi, that is beyond my knowledge."

"Right right, just checking. Now and again you come out with some strange stuff. Any idea how to make it _hot_?"

"Tadashi, I think it's the ghosts that are making it cold." spoke up Hiro, tearing his eyes away from the approaching darkness.

"Well what should we do? _Lead_ them away? Somehow, I don't think that'll work."

"Was there any other way of stopping these things? You did say it varied depending on haunting – maybe fire won't work with these ghosts."

"Uh…" Tadashi frowned as he racked his brains for an answer. "There was a burial?"

"Great!" said Hiro. "I saw a shovel nearby; I'll go and grab it,"

Tadashi turned to Baymax as Hiro raced off. "Baymax, we don't have any of the candles or herbs for the burial. It's ritualistic; it's not like just burying something in the garden."

"What do you mean?" asked Hiro, having returned with the shovel gripped tightly in his hands. "It's our only chance – there's no way we have any time for anything else!" he gestured to the black fog, which was now less than thirteen feet away. Are you sure it won't work?"

"The only way I read it'll work without all the herbs and candles is if you have a body, or at least part of one body to bury as well."

"Shouldn't we just give it a shot? C'mon it's all we've got!"

Tadashi could now feel the air getting even colder as the fog began to form a tighter circle around them, isolating them from anything outside and preventing escape.

Without bothering to reply, Tadashi grabbed the shovel from his brother and began to dig a hole right next to the fire.

"Tadashi, can you dig any faster?" asked Hiro, anxiously wringing his hands as his eyes flitted from his brother to the black mist, which now seemed to be moving towards them at twice the speed it was before. "Or maybe try a patch of ground less frozen?"

"Here's an idea, why don't you take over, Hiro?" Tadashi snapped, "I mean, since you seem to be such an expert." He heard Hiro inhale sharply and sighed in resignation, his voice softer as he asked, "Is there another shovel lying around you could use?"

Hiro shook his head, "No, that was the only one, and I mean, I can't exactly go looking for one."

Tadashi nodded, not once looking up as his muscles strained and burned with the effort of constant digging into partially-frozen ground.

"Would you like me to take over?" asked Hiro, noticing his brother's trembling arms and his short breaths. The hole was now deep enough to cover Hiro's knees, and about as wide as two footballs, but they still needed it bigger if it was to fit everything in.

"No, Hiro. Just keep an eye on those ghosts."

"Uh… keep an eye on the invisible ghosts hidden in the dark mist. Gotcha."

They stood in silence for a while longer, with Hiro and Baymax watching and Tadashi digging, until Tadashi made a noise of accomplishment.

"Hiro, grab the stuff!" he called.

"But it's on fire!"

"Cold fire, Hiro!" he replied. "Just grab it, we don't have much time!"

Over the time it had taken Tadashi to dig the hole, the darkness was only a meter or so away, and he could already see it was getting closer faster than before.

Hiro nodded and ran to the fire, hesitating for only a second before picking up all he could carry and hurrying over to his brother with it bundled in his arms, before running back for the rest, shaking off the strange feeling of having the cold flames licking at his body and clothes, but setting fire to nothing.

Before Hiro had even finished piling everything in the small hole, Tadashi had started filling it in, the shovel a blur as earth spilled everywhere in his haste to finish.

"Dude, some of this stuff is still of fire!" said Hiro, as he threw a coat and a few stuffed animals into the hole.

"It's fine, maybe it'll help – just keep going!" Tadashi stopped filling in the dirt as he waited for Hiro to finish throwing everything in, before starting up again. He'd only been shovelling for under a minute when he heard his brother gasp in fear.

"Tadashi…" Tadashi briefly glanced up at Hiro and his eyes widened to saucers as he saw the darkness was now inches away.

"Hiro," started Baymax, but he was interrupted by a terrified shout from Hiro.

"Tadashi, my arm, I can't–!" Tadashi cried out in horror as he watched as Hiro was suddenly dragged backwards into the blackness by an invisible being, too fast for him to even release a whimper.

Tadashi stared at the spot his brother had been standing in with an open mouth and wide eyes, his arm outstretched and his had reaching as if he could somehow pull Hiro back by sheer power of will.

"Tadashi, hurry," it took Tadashi a moment to recover from his shock before he turned to look at his robot.

"Wh-what?"

"Hiro is here, but is moving further away. I would suggest hurrying."

Tadashi swallowed unsteadily before going back to shovelling the dirt into the hole, finishing quickly with the incentive of his missing brother and the knowledge that he would soon meet the same fate as him if he didn't do as Baymax had said. Tadashi threw down the shovel and stomped a foot on the newly-covered ground, and immediately the darkness around them dispersed into a thin mist before evaporating completely, giving Tadashi and Baymax the ability to once again see the garden.

"Hiro?" Tadashi called hoarsely, stumbling forwards and looking around wildly. "Hiro, where are you?"

"Tadashi?"

A faint voice could only just be heard from the direction of the large tree, and that was all Tadashi needed to hear to sprint over, arriving in record time to skid to a stop. Sitting at the base of the tree with his back against the dark, rough bark and his knees pulled close to his chest was Hiro, shivering from a cold that Tadashi couldn't feel and looking up at him with relieved, frightened eyes.

Tadashi let out a breath of relief and dropped to the floor, bringing his brother in close, ignoring the icy touch of his skin and the tremors that shook him.

"I'm so glad you're okay," he whispered into the teenager's messy hair.

"H-hey," Hiro stuttered with a smile, pulling back, "you needed s-some incentive to w-work faster. Y-you're the slowest digger I've ev-ver seen."

"And you attract trouble like no one I've ever known," Tadashi replied fondly, laughing shakily and pulling Hiro towards him again in a comforting, safe embrace.

* * *

"Are you boys ready to leave?" Cass asked as she stood waiting by the door. Tadashi appeared from the kitchen with Baymax's case and turned towards the stairs.

"Hiro, come on!" he called as Aunt Cass opened the front door. "We're leaving!"

"Okay – one sec!" came the reply as Hiro soon appeared on the landing. Cass winced as he took the stairs two at a time, somehow managing to only stumble even with his suitcase in one hand and something that looked like a book in the other.

"What took you?" asked Tadashi suspiciously as Cass walked out to the car.

"Souvenir," replied Hiro with a wink, pulling out the now completely dry diary he'd found in his room from behind his back.

"You found it?" Tadashi asked, bewilderment written across his face.

"Yeah, it was back in the drawer. Guess I must've missed it."

"Are you sure you should be taking that?" Tadashi quirked an eyebrow as they followed Cass out the door.

"It's just a book, Tadashi." replied Hiro with an impish grin. "It wasn't even needed in the burial and the ghosts are gone – what's the worst that could happen?"

"Famous last words," murmured Tadashi.

"Say goodbye to the house, boys!" said Cass cheerfully as they clambered into the car. Hiro and Tadashi shared a knowing look as the younger waved mockingly at the house, before blowing a raspberry and sitting back in his seat, the diary resting in his lap as the car pulled away.

* * *

**A/N: I am so incredibly sorry for the long wait! I swear it was never meant to be this long but life just kinda overtook me a little. Anyway, for anyone actually still reading this, I hope you enjoyed this extra long chapter! It's very late right now so forgive me if this ending seems a little weak. I'm thinking about re-writing it, or changing it completely and having an alternate ending or something. I don't know, I'm just not happy with this one and couldn't seem to get it right. **

**Thank you so much for everyone who's reviewed, favourited and followed, you guys are awesome! I love how into the story you were getting, and I'm again very sorry for the long wait, but hey – you might get another chapter in the form of an alternate ending if I'm feeling it! ;) (Might not happen though, as I may or may not be planning on writing a sequel). **

**Speaking of which, the sequel (if I do decide to write one) will be completely pre-written so there isn't a repeat of what happened with this story, and I'll leave a temporary update as another chapter here to let you guys know when I post it, so you won't have to keep checking for it if you're following this one already. **

**(Also, ****_GuitarGeek_**** thank you for the message, it was lovely of you :))**


End file.
